Through the Looking Glass
by KinkyWings
Summary: Through the looking glass - a metaphorical expression derived from Lewis Caroll's novel of the same name, meaning: on the strange side, in the twilight zone, or in a strange parallel world. AU in which Betty is a Serpent and Jughead stumbles back into her life after a long time away from the Southside.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N : This was written for the take a prompt, leave a prompt challenge on the Riverdale Fanfiction Challenges Forum. My prompt was the title: Through the Looking Glass. If you are into Riverdale and want to socialize with fellow enthusiasts, check out the Riverdale Fanfiction Challenges Forum for great people, fun times, and even better writing inspiration. There is something for everyone, and if not, you can make your own challenges!**

* * *

Through the Looking Glass

* * *

 _Through the looking glass - a metaphorical expression derived from Lewis Caroll's novel of the same name, meaning: on the strange side, in the twilight zone, or in a strange parallel world_

* * *

The summer sun beat down on the asphalt of the empty parking lot. Only one occupant braved the heat. Decked in head to toe black leather, the lithe blonde figure leaned up against her motorcycle and smoked a cigarette, something that only added to the sweltering heat. She did not seem to mind though. In fact, she seemed at home in her surroundings, fitting in with the urban jungle of decrepit buildings and graffiti art.

"Hey, Ponytail!"

The blonde turned to see Toni running towards her, hair freshly died with strands of crimson interlaced through the brown. It was badass, one of the better looks her best friend had rocked over the years.

"Toni," Betty replied with a smile, giving the girl a brief hug, careful not to snag herself on Toni's large hoops. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show."

"And miss the chance to catch up with my best girl?" Toni replied, punching Betty lightly on the arm. Betty extended her pack of smokes, and Toni took one, lighting the cigarette on the blunt end of Betty's. Toni took a long drag, blowing out sweet nicotine before turning to Betty once more. "How was life up in the Five Seasons?"

"Nauseating," Betty said drolly, taking another drag of her cigarette as if it would wash away the time spent in that living nightmare.

"Really?"

"They made me wear pink."

Toni nearly choked on her cigarette, and Betty laughed, but it was bittersweet. She hadn't realized just how much being separated from the Southside would ache until she spent three months away. It was the little things that she longed for: hanging out with Toni and the others in abandoned lots just like this one, smoking and getting drunk by themselves until the sun came up. It was a hell of a lot better than the bubblegum fantasy her father made her live.

"I've missed you Ponytail," Toni said once she had finished wiping the laughter tears from her eyes. "The Southside isn't the same when you're gone. There's no one around to keep Sweet Pea in check."

Betty smiled to herself, thinking of all the kinds of trouble Sweet Pea and his boys had managed to get themselves in without her to guide them.

"What happened while I was away?"

"Nothing much. Joaquin tried dating the Sheriff's kid for a while - don't know what the hell he was thinking. Of course that pretentious Northsider was going to break his sensitive little heart."

Betty snorted. This wasn't the first time Joaquin had made a mistake like this, and it wouldn't be the last. Not that it mattered. Serpents took care of their own, no matter what. "I hope you broke the kid's legs to repay the favor."

She was only half kidding, and Toni knew it.

"See, this is why I missed you," Toni said, smiling devilishly. Betty mimicked the smile in turn.

Betty had missed Toni too, of course. Toni was her oldest and truest friend. They had grown up together, gone to school together, and became two of the only female Serpents together. Toni was the closest thing Betty had to a sister, especially since Polly ran off with that richy-rich Blossom boy to play happily-ever-after with his trust fund in the Blossom family mansion. Polly had always been too preppy and sunshine for Betty to really relate to anyway. Toni, on the other hand, was much more attuned to Betty's darker side. They shared the same restless spirit, the same need to rebel, and wore the same leather jacket with matching tattoo.

"Anything else?" Betty asked, knowing there had to be something going on. It was the Southside after all; things were hardly at ease for long.

Toni started to fidget, and Betty knew she was getting close to something. One of Betty's most defining (and famously irritating) features was her persistence. Call it a killer intuition, or call it stubbornness - she had heard just about every variation in between. But at the end of the day, Betty Cooper always got what she wanted.

"Come on Toni. You've always been a terrible liar."

Toni rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She was clearly reluctant to tell Betty, which meant that this couldn't be good. Betty braced herself for bad news.

"Things are not like you remember them, Ponytail. Right after you left, things got bad. Jingle Jangle is growing out of the walls of Southside High like weeds. Ghoulies and Serpents are fighting like never before. Mayor McCoy and her Northside army have set up daily raids in order to pick out the 'sinners'. It's chaos."

Betty glowered, throwing her cigarette to the ground and grinding it under her boot. This...this was a whole lot worse than bad.

"It sounds like war to me."

Leave it to the Northside to blame the Southside for something out of their control. Crucifying Serpents was what those rich snobs lived for, and Serpents didn't even _touch_ Jingle Jangle! It was the Ghoulies who ran that operation, and if anyone from the Northside had even bothered to look into things, they would have known that. They were just as much to blame as the Ghoulies; after all, it was Northside kids that kept the dealers in business!

"Did they catch you?" Betty asked, concerned for her friend. If Toni had been in trouble and Betty wasn't there to protect her...Betty would never let herself live that down.

"Yeah, on the first raid. Didn't find anything though. I don't deal in that crap. They let me off with a warning," Toni grumbled, and while Betty was glad nothing terrible had happened to her friend, she was still livid this had happened at all. "Now that you're back, hopefully some kind of truce can be made. If not for the Serpents and the Ghoulies as a whole, then at least while we're at school."

"You know how I feel about school, Toni: it's a neutral space. No wars, no gangs, no politics," Betty recited, feeling her skin boil under her leather Serpent jacket. "I'll do what I can to keep the peace. It's what mom would have wanted."

"Make her proud girl," Toni supported, placing a hand on her shoulder. Betty appreciated the sentiment, knowing that Toni would have her back no matter what. "You're Alice Cooper's daughter for a reason. You take shit from no one. Remind them of that."

"I will," Betty nodded, suddenly feeling restless. She needed to get out of there, clear her mind and think about what she needed to do to reclaim her home. "Do you wanna get out of here?"

"Sure," Toni shrugged. She had walked there, no ride in sight. "Pop's? I'm buying."

Betty nodded, the thought of one of Pop's famous milkshakes making her mouth water. Just one more thing she had craved during her stint upstate.

She mounted her bike and Toni slid behind her, both girls fastening helmets to their heads. Toni's arms slipped around Betty's waist, holding her tight. With a rev of the engine, Betty tore out of the lot, leaving summer in the dust.

* * *

Another school year had come, bringing the same amount of stress and bullshit as all the others before.

However, there was one good thing about school, a sole redeeming feature. One thing worth getting up the extra hour early and staying an extra hour after the final bell.

Betty opened the door, dust and the smell of stale chips filtering out of the closet that served as the Red and Black's base of operations. It was a poor excuse for a work space, but it was Betty's second home. The dim lighting from the flickering bulb in the ceiling was like a welcome home sign; her creaky metal chair and wobbly writer's desk were as comfortable as her bed. She cracked her fingers before dusting off the keyboard to her computer.

She wondered what stories would find their way across her desk this year. As the sole writer and editor of the Red and Black, she had her pick of the lot.

Looking up to the cork board, she realized that she had not cleared off her stuff from last year. A web of entangled threads, photos, and newspaper clippings littered the jam-packed board. It would be impossible to read by anyone except herself. She had solved Cheryl Blossom's murder with this board just last spring. And what did the sheriff's department do to thank her for her hard work? Gave her a slap on the wrist and searched her meager bearings - and her house - for proof that she might have tampered with evidence to fabricate the story. Because who really wanted to believe that local millionaire Clifford Blossom would shoot his own daughter in the head at point blank range? Betty was the first to admit that it was insane, but even she was not good enough to botch video evidence of a bullet ripping straight through Cheryl's brain.

 _Ungrateful Northsiders, sticking their nose into everything where they don't belong_ , Betty seethed in her mind, ripping down her victory in order to lay the foundations for her next one.

As much as she bemoaned the Northside, Betty understood that cooperation between both sides was the only way this insanity was going to end. It was what her mother had instilled in her at a young age, and what she chose to believe now. Getting everyone to work together was going to be the real problem, especially with this drug war going on. Suspicions and mistrust were running high on both sides; Betty could feel the unrest in the air walking down the hall that morning. Hell, she felt some of the outrage herself when she received a random pat down from one of the deputies positioned by her locker. Riverdale was teetering on the verge of civil war, and Betty was afraid she was going to see it sooner rather than later.

"Hey Ponytail," came a voice from a few feet away, one that made her worries vanish and her heart soar. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

Sweet Pea stood in the doorway, leaning up against the frame as he admired her. He looked just as Betty remembered, if not better: tall, dark, and handsome with black hair greased back, equally dark eyes sparkling with mischief and adoration.

"Come here," Betty said with a smile, watching as her boyfriend walked forward at a snail's pace before finally reaching her.

She pushed up to her tiptoes and he pulled her the rest of the way into a kiss. Fingers wound their way into his hair as she swayed on her feet, reveling in the feeling of home. On the outside, Sweet Pea looked like a thug without a conscience, but on the inside...he was still those things, but also the incredibly kind and attentive person who she loved.

"It's been far too fucking long," he sighed as they parted, playing with the ends of her curly ponytail.

"Tell me about it," Betty agreed, pecking him thrice more on the lips for good measure. "I've missed this more than you can imagine."

"Oh, I can imagine."

A few minutes and a thorough make-out session later, Betty backed away from her boyfriend before they got in trouble. The last thing she needed was to start her junior year with a misdemeanor against her. Also, she loved how mesmerized Sweet Pea looked whenever she walked away. She was such a tease, and they both knew it.

Instead, she turned her focus back on her empty board. She would have to pick out a new muse this year, something to top Cheryl Blossom's murder. Though, in Riverdale, she doubted something that scandalous and groundbreaking would ever cross her path again. It was frustrating to peak as a journalist at the ripe young age of sixteen.

"Already back at it then?" Sweet Pea asked, hands running over the fallen contents of her board. He picked up a particularly damning article, one written by FJIII, a newbie writer at some school on the west coast who had taken an interest in their sleepy little town, that had started to curl around the edges. Whoever FJIII was, she owed him a lot. Even if he wasn't from Riverdale, his article was the catalyst that eventually led her to crack the case. Sometimes an outside perspective was all it took to change the tide of an investigation.

"The truth waits for no woman."

"Atta girl," Sweet Pea encouraged, a look of pride on his face.

It felt like he was one of the only people who supported Betty's passion for journalism. The rest of the Serpents tolerated it because she could always use her influence in the local media to swing stories their way, but Sweet Pea...he actually read Betty's articles - even the crappy ones about how the cafeteria ladies weren't using quality grade meat - and gave her the strength and motivation to keep going. When she was looking into Cheryl's death, everyone thought she was going to fail. No one believed in her except Toni and Sweet Pea. She didn't know where she would be without them.

"So, how was the upstate? The old man still giving you hell?"

"He hid me in the closet like some kind of secret the entire time," Betty spat as she recalled the look of shame each of the few times he had to introduce her as his daughter, a stain on his picket white fence life. "I don't even know why he said he'd look after me if he didn't even want to...not that I need him anyway,"

"Fuck him," Sweet Pea said, a look of disgust mingled with anger plastered on his face. "If he can't pull his head out of his ass long enough to appreciate his daughter, then fuck him."

"Thanks babe," Betty replied appreciatively, but this was a wound that would not heal with a few words. Ever since she was little, her father had favored Polly, something Polly still liked to bring up years after he had decided his family just wasn't worth it and left their mom for a secretary at his journal who was ten years younger and untainted by the Southside. "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not going back there again. He and his Stepford wife can go be perfect away from me."

"Serpents are having a back-to-school bonfire tonight. Thought maybe you'd wanna go?" he asked, trying to cheer her up. Betty loved a good bonfire, and it had been ages since she'd been.

"Will there be booze?"

"All kinds," Sweet Pea assured, looking like a kid who was caught stealing out of the cookie jar. "I uh...snagged some of the good stuff from the stash last night. They hauled in so much, I doubt they'll notice it's missing."

"Sweet Pea!" Betty gasped, looking up and smacking him across the chest. "You're gonna get us in trouble."

If Tall Boy knew that Sweet Pea had been stealing from the Serpent stash, there would be hell to pay. There were some things where being Alice Cooper's daughter did not buy her sway, and this was one of them. She was not looking forward to taking care of her boyfriend when he had both his elbows and knees blown out because of it.

"Isn't that what you live for, Ponytail?" he teased, leaning down and bracing his arms around her so that she was caged in. It sent a thrill down her spine that had all her hairs standing on end.

 _Yes, it is._ _That rush, that spike of adrenaline that came with pulling off the impossible, there was nothing better._

"Pick me up at eight. Don't be late," Betty instructed, kissing Sweet Pea hard before shoving him out of her office before the first period bell rang.

* * *

 _The playground could be a vicious place, especially for a five year old who would rather spend his time reading than playing with kids his own age._

 _Maybe that was why Betty took an instant liking to him. He wasn't loud and obnoxious like the other boys who pulled on her ponytail and stole her juice before recess._

 _He was nursing a black eye, holding it gingerly while sucking up fat, crocodile tears. His trying to be tough was only more endearing. What was not endearing was a pudgy boy who insisted on being called Sweet Pea tormenting him. He and his equally pudgy friends were not being nice, dangling the sad boy's book above his head where he could not reach, pushing him down to the grass every time he tried to get up. The teachers did nothing, turning their heads as if they saw nothing at all. This was the Southside, and in the Southside, they believed in tough love. As Mommy would say, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'._

 _Betty just thought they were being cruel, which was probably why she plucked up the nerve to say something._

 _"Hey! Leave him alone!" Betty shouted, coming up to place herself between the boy on the ground and his attackers, brandishing all her thirty-five pound might._

 _"Go away!" one of them ordered, shoving Betty to the ground next to the sad boy._

 _Instead of rolling over or taking it, Betty felt a rage unlike she had ever felt before. She got up and rushed forward, kicking the boy between the legs. Immediately he yelped and fell to the ground, sobbing like a baby. The other boys looked at her like she was crazy, running away to go tattle no doubt. Betty didn't care. She just felt proud._

 _She leaned down and picked up the book, handing it to the sad boy who was also looking at her like she had a few screws loose._

 _"Thanks," he muttered, plucking the book from her fingers and soothing down the places where the paper had been wrinkled._

 _"I'm Betty. What's your name?" she asked, sitting down next to him, determined to be his friend now that she had stuck her neck out for him._

 _"Jughead."_

 _"That's not a name," Betty giggled, much to the boy's displeasure._

 _"It is too!" he protested, pouting._

 _"Okay, Jughead," she said teasingly, which only made him blush further with irritation. "Why did those boys take your book?"_

 _"I don't know," Jughead grumbled. "Why did you stop them?"_

 _"I don't know," she admitted. It just felt like the right thing to do, and Mommy always told her to do what was right. "But so long as we're friends, I'll always protect you."_

 _"Friends?" Jughead asked, not sure to believe her or not. "I've never had a friend before."_

 _"Well, now you do."_

 _And miraculously enough, the sad boy smiled._

* * *

Betty watched, fire in her veins, as the greyhound bus pulled out of the station, wheels turning up dust as it wound its way down the road.

All her aspirations, her hopes, and more importantly, her story, disappeared along with the bus, and there was only one person to blame.

"You!" Betty hissed as she turned on the guy standing behind her. Fingernails bit into her palms which were growing slick with blood, angry that this idiot had gotten in her way, thereby allowing her only lead to escape. "Who the _hell_ are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" the guy retorted, just as furious.

He picked up his grey beanie from the ground, dusting it off before replacing it atop his mop of dark black hair. Funny, properly situated, it looked just like a crown. Betty wondered if that was supposed to mean something, if this kid thought that he was some kind of royalty just because he was from the Northside.

"Because of you, my source just caught the last bus out of town," Betty seethed, not liking his lip. Did this kid even know who he was talking to? "Who knows if he'll come back!"

" _Your_ source?" the guy asked incredulously, hands on his hips as he peered at her with contempt. "That guy was _my_ source for an article _I'm_ writing! Or, at least I _was_ writing before you came crashing into me and screwed things up!"

"You want to rethink those words?" Betty challenged, her switchblade out faster than the kid could blink. The blade glinted in the sunlight, making sure he saw it. He swallowed thickly, Adam's apple bobbing as all that bravado turned into comical fear. Regardless of what he thought, she wasn't really going to knife him. He didn't deserve it, but he did deserve a good old fashioned intimidating. Make him think twice before talking back to her again.

She backed him up against the concrete wall so that his shoulder blades dug against the stone. She pointed the knife right up under his chin, metal barely glancing his skin. From this close, she could hear his heart racing; she could almost smell the fear on him.

"W-what does a Serpent even want with a mediocre music student anyway?" he stammered.

Betty could have taken the time to explain how she had spent the past two weeks painstakingly digging up a string of loosely-connected murders and her source was the last person to see his cello tutor alive. But that would be giving away her story, what was left of it at least, and like hell was she letting this idiot ruin anything else for her.

Something about this idiot was terribly familiar. It was gnawing on her insides, his face and a name on the tip of her tongue and it was driving her mad. Then, she noticed she had gotten _too_ close to this guy, only a foot of space between them, her face near enough to count the flecks of gold in those hazel-green eyes. Really beautiful eyes...and the guy seemed just as hypnotized with her...

Betty jerked back, rapidly coming to her senses.

"None of your goddamn business," Betty snapped, jerking her knife in the opposite direction. "Now get out of here before I change my mind and turn your intestines into a Picasso painting."

The guy gave her a funny look, sidestepping her the entire way until he was in the clear. Then he bolted as quickly as he could without being considered running.

* * *

 _All throughout their younger years, Betty and Jughead were like a Southside fairytale._

 _That day on the playground was only the start of their intense friendship. They refused to call it anything else, because they were supposed to have cooties and boys and girls weren't supposed to fall in love at such a young age. But there was no other way to describe it._

 _Betty and Jughead were completely and utterly in love with one another._

 _Anyone with eyes could see how much they cared about one another, how they were inseparable and had to spend every waking moment talking with or about the other._ _Their teachers cooed over them and had nothing but sweet things to say. The only people who had a problem were their parents, but Betty and Jughead were both too young to understand the politics of the Southside and why a Cooper and a Jones were ill-fated from the start._

 _So, they continued with their fairytale, all smiles and shared snacks and holding hands in the hallway._

 _"Pass me the scissors, will you?" Betty asked, her art project almost complete. She was making a butterfly; all that was left was to cut it out._

 _Jughead walked around and passed Betty the scissors, smiling brightly. "Anything for you Betty!"_

 _"Thank you Juggie," Betty said, placing a kiss on his cheek. He flushed a dark red, but was happier than any other boy in the world._

 _"Ugh, you guys are so gross!" Toni moaned and rolled her eyes, the sassiest seven-year-old that ever existed._

 _Both Betty and Jughead stuck their tongues out at her. They were used to their friends doing things like that now. It used to really bother them at first, but the teasing was so commonplace that the little jibes did not even register._

 _People threw around the terms 'sweethearts' and 'happily-ever-after', and they really believed it, unaware that a storm lingered just around the corner._

* * *

"Do you have fifty cents? I want to see what new songs Pop has on queue," Toni asked, palm open and expectant.

Betty fished through her wallet, brandishing two tarnished quarters and placing them into her friend's hand. Toni beamed and got up from the booth, swaggering over to the jukebox. Betty knew that the girl would be over there deliberating for at least ten minutes, so when Pop came over with their meals, she didn't wait before tucking into her burger and fries.

Serpents didn't usually hang out at Pop's. There were too many Northsiders to make it an enjoyable experience, but tonight was different. The place was mostly empty (Betty had been told that it was Riverdale High's homecoming) so besides the older couple in the back corner booth, she, Sweet Pea, Joaquin, and Toni had the whole place to themselves.

Joaquin had been silent and stoic as usual, making the occasional snide comment while Toni regaled them with some impossible story from the summer. Betty, however, was a million miles away, her mind on the boy with the crown beanie.

Who was this kid that plagued her thoughts and dreams? Ever since their encounter at the bus stop, he was a constant presence in her mind. It was going to sound crazy, but sometimes Betty thought that she _knew_ him. It felt like she was seeing a ghost, and it creeped her out. She just wanted to know his name, and then she could rest. But, she didn't even know where he lived or where to find him, and it wasn't like she could just go up to Tall Boy or one of the other Serpents and ask about him without one, getting him beaten up or two, word getting around to Sweet Pea. Not that Sweet Pea had anything to fear from this kid, but he was the possessive, jealous type. Any other boy attached to Betty's name and Sweet Pea would go full on Schwarzenegger.

"Earth to Ponytail..."

Betty blinked rapidly, pulling herself back into the now. Sweet Pea was looking at her like something was wrong, his face twisted into a frown.

"Yeah?"

"There's this car show going on at the old drive-in lot this Saturday. I know you've been talking about getting a new engine for your bike. Wanna go?"

"I'll go," Joaquin interjected, a smirk on his face as Sweet Pea grew irate.

"No one asked you," Sweet Pea grunted.

Joaquin gave Sweet Pea a look before getting up to join Toni at the jukebox, leaving the couple alone.

"Visiting hours start at eight, and I already missed the last twelve weeks," Betty said apologetically, reaching out to take Sweet Pea's hand in hers. "But thanks for thinking of me."

No longer annoyed, Sweet Pea's expression morphed into one of sympathy. "How is Alice these days?"

"Livid, angry, a ball of righteous fury," Betty rattled off, picking at her fries, food suddenly looking unappealing. It happened every time she thought about how her mom was sitting in jail while she was out in the world, able to enjoy the things her mother couldn't. It was even worse now that the memory of her last visit before leaving upstate included her mother being dragged away from the phone kicking and screaming by two guards after they accused her of getting too emotional.

"Penny Peabody said - "

"Penny Peabody is a goddamn liar and a snake," Betty snapped, feeling guilty about it immediately after the words escaped her mouth. Sweet Pea was not who she was mad at. She was mad at the world, and her boyfriend did not deserve the wrath she had reserved for God and karma and the rest of the universe. "Pun not intended."

The levity at the end eased Sweet Pea a little. He remained silent so that she could get everything she needed out.

"I know she's done a lot for my mom, but nothing she told me has come true," Betty explained, feeling hopelessness creep in at the thought of her mother rotting behind bars for the rest of her life.

"These things...they take time," Sweet Pea said gently, careful not to upset her further.

"But she's innocent. She was just trying to keep the peace. She was just trying to protect me," Betty said miserably, feeling the darkness creeping in the longer she dwelled on the unpleasant topic.

The Northside needed a scapegoat to pin the Blossom mess on, and instead of let the Southside descend into chaos, or worse, let Betty be made into the prime suspect because of her involvement in uncovering the truth, Alice Cooper stepped forward and took the fall for the sake of peace. The Northside was so proud of themselves. Alice Cooper, the leader of the Southside Serpents, finally behind bars. It was day to celebrate! No one gave a fuck about the daughters she left behind, nor the sacrifices she made to ensure that no one ever went after her family again. Her mother had told her that there were risks involved with investigative journalism, but Betty had never given them thought until the moment Sheriff Keller cuffed her mother and read her her rights. It was a debt that Betty would never be able to repay, something that kept her up at night, a burden she would never get rid of even though that was never her mother's intent.

"I know," Sweet Pea said reaching to wrap his arm around her and pull her close. "We all know. Which is why we _will_ get your mom out, I promise. Serpents look after each other, and no Serpent is more important than Alice Cooper...except her daughter."

Reluctantly, Betty's lips curled up into a smile. Damn Sweet Pea and his charm distracting her from her misery.

"Whoa, did we interrupt a moment?" Toni asked, looking between the couple awkwardly as she and Joaquin slid into the other side of the booth. They had brought back a round of shakes in everyone's favorite flavors: chocolate for Toni and Sweet Pea, strawberries and cream for Joaquin, and plain vanilla for Betty.

"No, we're good," Betty replied, squeezing Sweet Pea's hand before letting go and sitting up so that she was no longer tucked into his muscly side.

"Some of the guys said they saw you lay into a Northsider at the bus station the other day," Sweet Pea changed the conversation, looking down at Betty with mild concern. While he knew that Betty could handle herself, she knew he could not stop being overprotective.

"It was nothing," Betty lied, shrugging her shoulders.

"You sure?" Sweet Pea asked, unconvinced. "I could get a couple guys together, rough him up a bit."

"He's not worth it," Betty dismissed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning on them as she went to take a sip of her milkshake. As sweet as it was that her boyfriend wanted to defend her, the effort would be wasted. Besides, the thought of this guy lying in a pile of his own blood brought her an unexpected amount of physical and emotional pain. "I don't think he'll be hanging around the Southside anymore."

Sweet Pea seemed disappointed, but nodded his head.

"Don't worry, it's only been a few weeks," Toni said, trying to cheer up Sweet Pea. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of chances for you to get your hands dirty by the time the year is up."

"The Ghoulies won't even know what hit them," Joaquin replied with a smirk, raising his milkshake to clink glasses with Toni and Sweet Pea.

Betty smiled and rolled her eyes before raising her glass as well.

* * *

 _The end of their fairytale started with five words._

 _"Betty...I have to leave..."_

 _"What? No you don't Juggie," she dismissed like he was playing some kind of joke. "You're staying here, with me."_

 _"Betty, I have to go," Jughead repeated. If this was some kind of joke, it wasn't funny, and Betty was getting really fed up with it. "Dad got sent away so Mom is taking me and Jellybean to live with my aunt."_

 _Oh, there was a plan. This was real. He was leaving. Betty could hardly believe it, shock taking over her entire body._

 _"Where does she live?" Betty asked, eyes wide. If he was moving upstate, it wouldn't be that bad. Daddy told her that he had always wanted to move upstate, that it was nice there, but Mommy always said no, that Riverdale was their home. They fought a lot about that. It made Betty sad, but if Juggie was moving there, maybe Daddy would drive her there a few times a month so that they could still have playdates and nothing would have to change._

 _"California."_

 _All those plans her crafty mind concocted crumbled. Everything, her whole world, felt like it was ending. How could he_ _leave her and move so far away? How could he do that? Didn't he know she loved him? She thought he loved her too..._

 _"No!" she shouted, jumping up from where she was coloring to get away from him._

 _"Betty! I'm sorry!" Jughead apologized, looking really upset. "We can still be friends! I'll write you letters!"_

 _"No! If you were my friend you wouldn't be leaving me!" Betty shouted. She was causing a scene; some of the other kids were staring to stare, but she didn't care._

 _Betty ran out of the classroom and down the hall, the teacher's screams following after her. She got sent home early that day for misconduct, her mother's face a deep-set scowl that promised hell as she showed up to the front office. The whole ride home she cried fat, silent tears, her eight-year-old heart breaking for the first time._

 _Betty never saw Jughead Jones again, his memory dwindling to nothing but a bittersweet dream._

* * *

"Miss Cooper, a moment of your time, if you may?"

The principal stood in the doorway, causing everyone to look up and stare at Betty. As notorious as she was in the Serpents, Betty was a model student in school. Teachers loved her, praised her, and pitied her future as it was tied to a gang and not in journalism school where they said she belonged. She had never been written up or called out of class a day in her life...until now.

Betty gathered her things and left class, following the principal down the hall to God-knows-where.

What could this possibly be about? Was she getting detention for the homework she forgot to turn in for chemistry the other week? Because her teacher had already told her that her exam grade more than made up for the deficit. Was this about the Red and Black? Were they finally fed up with her one-woman show and were pulling the plug because she had been struggling to crack a good case? If so, Betty hardened her exterior shell. She was not going to give up her pride and joy without a fight, fists and words included.

However, what was waiting for her in the front office was not what she expected.

It was the guy - the very same guy in the crown beanie who cost her the story.

He looked very out of place in his button down flannel, pressed black pants and scuff-less shoes. He looked like a Northsider trying too hard to be emo, but strangely, it fit him. If only he wasn't so damn jumpy and suspicious of everything. He glared at every corner of the room as if it had offended him, as if looking for some way out. Betty didn't blame him. The cinder block walls and chain link fences and spray painted lockers of Southside High had to be quite the difference from the posh, spacious, well-lit halls of other schools.

As soon as the office door opened, his eyes were on Betty. He stared at her with such an intensity that it felt like he was boring holes through her head.

Now, she was more confused.

Was this about their run in? Did he want to press charges? Would she need to call a lawyer? Not that she could afford one of those if this snob decided to hit her with the book, but maybe Polly could deign herself to Betty's level and help her only sister out.

"What's this all about?" Betty finally asked, confused as to why she was even there.

"Miss Cooper may I introduce you to Southside High's newest student, Forsythe Jones," Principal ... said, gesturing to the boy who now had a (rather ridiculous) name. "Mr. Jones is transferring from out of state and will be starting here next Monday. I offered to give him a tour of the facilities, but when I mentioned your name, he insisted that you be the one to lead the tour."

"You mentioned me?" Betty asked, not sure who to be more confused by.

"With all you do for the school and the community, Miss Cooper, it is hard not to," the older man replied with a labored breath. "Now, I'll leave you two to it. No funny business. You have an hour. Miss Cooper, I expect you to attend sixth period English, no exceptions."

"Of course, Sir."

The fact that he thought she would skip class with some random boy with a strange yet frustratingly familiar name was more than a little offensive. However, Betty still pulled on a smile and remained on her best behavior until the principal was out of earshot. Then she turned on her heel and walked out of the office, not bothering to check if the idiot was following her.

He was, though. His shoes squeaked on the floor as he jogged to catch up. It had to be culture shock. At his old school, this kid probably passed groups of jocks and cheerleaders. Here, Betty could pass more groups of Serpents and Ghoulies than she could count on both hands. She just hoped the poor sucker didn't get jumped by the time they made it to the Red and Black.

 _Why is this kid following me?_ Betty asked, looking up to the universe for some kind of answer. _Why does he keep getting sent my way?_

She turned the key in the lock, throwing the door open. Dust from the infinite layers billowed around them like a cloud as the pair entered the small room. It wasn't the tour that he was promised, but Betty really didn't care. She was not interested in showing off what Southside High had to offer, which was gang wars, drug wars, and minimal education. Whatever made him change schools, he needed to change back. There was nothing for him here.

And yet, in the musty air, brooding in the corner, he looked like he fit in just fine.

"Where are we?"

"My office," Betty replied dryly, throwing her leather jacket across the back of her chair.

"You're a journalist?" he asked, taking in the context clues as he walked around the cramped space.

"My, aren't you an observant one."

"I used to write for the paper at my old school in California. If you're looking to expand your staff, I could help out."

Betty sighed and pinched her nose. She wasn't looking for a co-editor. "Listen, Forsythe - "

"You gave me hell for ruining your story, yet you have mine pinned on a board," he cut her off, studying the contents of her board with scrutiny.

"What?"

He pointed to an article that she had yet to file, one of the few still pinned on the board she had taken down about Cheryl's murder. It was the same article that Sweet Pea had picked up. The same article that led her to cracking the case.

"FJIII. It's my pen name...my real name, actually. Forsythe Jones the third. But, no one calls me Forsythe," he replied, cringing at the name in the same manner that a sad five year old boy once did on the playground when she told him his name was silly, and suddenly, everything made sense. It was like someone had turned on the lights and shone them into places she had not looked in years. "Everyone calls me - "

" - Jughead," Betty finished, name flying off her tongue before she could stop it, everything falling into place. "Jughead Jones."


	2. Chapter 2

The Whyte Wyrm was near empty on a Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn't early enough that stragglers from the night before still lingered and it wasn't yet late enough to justify letting the new crowd in. However, that did not stop Betty from taking her third shot of Jamison. She drowned herself in the burn hoping it would scorch harder than the sting of old memories, and even worse, the sting of new ones.

 _"How do you know my name?" Jughead asked, looking at Betty shrewdly._

 _She faltered, ten year's worth of repressed emotions and memories trickling back, making it hard to think, nonetheless talk._

 _"Y-you don't remember me?"_

 _"Remember you?" Jughead asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I just met you. Am I supposed to remember you?"_

 _Betty shook her head rapidly._ _This wasn't making any sense. He wasn't making any sense. Why now? Why here? Why her?_

 _"But you...you asked me personally to give you the tour. Why would you do that if you don't know who I am?"_

 _"I did my research before coming. Nearly every other article about the Southside of Riverdale mentioned your name," he explained as if it were obvious. "Besides, I'm a bit of a fan myself."_

 _"A fan?"_

 _"Of your work solving the Cheryl Blossom murder," he elaborated, gesturing back to the board. "I was curious to meet the woman who cracked the case."_

 _How funny was it that the two of them were working the same case from coasts apart. How funny it was they were still connected despite the years. How funny it was that he could remember none of it. Funny...ironic...tragic..._

 _"Are you alright?" Jughead asked, waving a hand in front of her eyes._

 _Betty must have spaced out, gone somewhere dark and turbulent inside her head. Jughead looked worried, his brow creased with concern. He probably thought she was crazy, that she was losing her mind. And maybe she was. Maybe Betty was finally going insane. Maybe all of this was some kind of sick joke or a hallucination and she would wake up._

 _Just wake up..._

 _"Fine," Betty snapped, stepping away from him. His orbit was undeniable and toxic. Too close and she was sucked into a black hole of nostalgia, and the last thing she needed was to give the Ghoulies and Serpents alike reason to find weakness in her leadership._

 _She had to get out of that room, away from him so she could breathe._

 _"I have to cut this tour short," Betty said bluntly, not even looking Jughead's way as she grabbed her leather jacket from off her chair, pushing past him to get to the door._

 _He didn't even try to stop her._

Betty shook the conversation from her mind, hands trembling as she reached up to pour another shot. She was numb to it all by now, feeling nothing as the liquor went down. Was this her fourth shot? The numbers got hazy, her memories taking her into a time warp. They were going to hit her later - in the middle of the night when she would puke them up in her bathroom tub - but now the buzz was the only thing keeping her from having a total mental breakdown.

"So this is where you've been hiding?"

Betty didn't bother looking up. She knew who it was, and she knew she was going to be found eventually.

Toni took one look at the state of her best friend, eyeing the wreck that was Betty Cooper up and down, trying to pinpoint what was wrong. It might have been better to ask what was not wrong. Betty laughed ruefully to herself and took another shot.

"Whoa girl, you wanna take it easy?"

No, Betty did not want to take it easy. She wanted to drown herself in that bottle, black out so hard that she lost time and all her memories of the day so she could continue living in ignorant bliss in her life that did not include Jughead Jones. But Toni was not kind, and Toni was not compassionate. She snatched away the bottle before Betty could stop her, removing her link to mental freedom.

"Talk to me Ponytail."

Betty looked up into the no-nonsense expression Toni wore and glowered. She could have issued as string of creative and colorful cuss words, but Toni did not deserve that. Toni was only trying to be a good friend and save Betty from alcohol poisoning, even if alcohol poisoning seemed like a better alternative than talking things out at the moment.

"Do you remember Jughead Jones?"

Toni's eyes went comically wide, every muscle in her body tensing.

"Yeah I do," she finally replied, walking around the bar to place the bottle of half-empty Jamison back on the shelf.

"You wanna hear something funny? He goes to Southside High now. I gave him a tour this morning."

Toni stopped dead in her tracks.

"Ponytail..."

"You wanna hear something funnier?" Betty asked, mowing over anything her best friend had to say. "He's the same kid that cost me my story. The boy from the bus station."

"Holy shit," Toni gasped, to which Betty only shook her head ruefully. "I think _I_ need a shot now."

The bottle of Jamison came right back out from its hiding hole. Toni poured two doubles - one for herself and one for Betty. The barely lasted two seconds before both girls had tossed their heads back, the only difference being that Betty was desensitized to the burn, while Toni grimaced and worked her mouth to get rid of the taste.

"How could I forget him? I looked him straight in the eye and didn't even know who he was..."

"I dunno girl. When he left...you were pretty messed up," Toni said, looking down at the bar instead of at Betty, picking at chips in the wood. "I remember you missing school for weeks on end. Your mom wanted you to see a therapist, but you refused. They were going to retain you and put you in the looney bin when suddenly, one day, you were fine. It was like Jughead never even existed. So, to prevent psycho-Ponytail, we all agreed to never bring him up again. Until now."

"But _how_ Toni?" Betty implored, searching the other's girl's face for answers. "I mean, normal people don't just erase other people from their memory!"

"You probably just blocked him out. Chose to ignore him. It was probably easier for you to move on that way," Toni shrugged, as if it were that simple. Nothing about this situation was simple. This situation was a living nightmare. Toni leaned over the bar, turning playful as a coy smile played at her lips. "I'm curious though, what did Jughead say when he saw you? Was it the Southside fairytale reunion from our childhood dreams?"

"If he recognized me, he didn't show it," Betty said ruefully, wishing Toni would bring the bottle back. "I guess he blocked me out too."

Toni was visibly disappointed, her smile replaced with a sympathetic one. "Interesting...I'm sorry girl."

"Toni, this is freaking me out," Betty admitted, pulling at her hair, messing up her meticulous ponytail. "If I can block out Jughead, then who knows what other crazy things my brain has been hiding from me?"

"You mean like a secret double life?" Toni asked, but her tone was so blatantly sarcastic that Betty knew the girl was messing with her.

Betty glared, her eyes cutting daggers into Toni. This was not the time to be joking around.

"I'm being serious."

"Girl, relax. I'm with you all the time. If you had a secret double life, I would know," Toni assured, reaching over the bar to grab Betty's hands before she could maul her palms like she usually did in situations of high stress. It was a soothing gesture, and Betty felt her heart rate return to an acceptable rate. When she looked up, Toni's dark eyes were fixed onto hers, grounding her back in reality. "You blocked out a traumatic event from someone who broke your heart at a very young age. Now, you're able to handle it. There's nothing else going on."

 _There is nothing else going on,_ Betty chanted to herself like a mantra, willing it to be true. But while that would help her put all other worries aside, it did nothing to help with the Jughead situation.

"What do I say to him Toni?" Betty asked, hating how desperate she sounded. Some brave and fearless leader she was shaping up to be. Knocked down a peg by a boy - oh, how the feminist inside her weeped. "What do I do?"

"He doesn't know who you are?" Toni asked for confirmation, to which Betty nodded. "Then just play it cool. Act normal. There's no need to freak out if he doesn't even remember. Besides, you've got Sweet Pea now."

"Right...'" Betty trailed off, feeling guilty because she had completely and totally forgotten about her boyfriend. The past few hours had been nothing but a panic and adrenaline infused flurry of memories and emotions all tied to Jughead Jones.

"Speaking of, he wanted me to ask if you were free Friday night."

"Yeah, why?"

"A few of us are going night riding down to Sweet Water River. You in?"

It was a terrible idea. As much crazy shit that had been happening in Riverdale, going by themselves at night to a place of known infamy and murder was like courting death. But the thrill of it made it all the more appealing to Betty, a welcome distraction from her current situation. Who knew, maybe a little adrenaline would do her some good.

"Yeah. I'm in."

* * *

Jughead insisted on being a loner.

He did not want to affiliate with Ghoulies nor Serpents. No matter how many times Betty and Toni told him that being unaffiliated in Southside High was the equivalent of putting a target on his back, he did not change his mind. Part of Betty admired him for sticking to his guns. The majority of Betty was downright terrified for what was going to become of him because of it.

She knew he was going to be a problem. Personal histories aside, she could take one look at the kid and know he was going to be singled out. He read too much, used too many words, and stuck his nose into everyone's business whether he meant to or not. In any other school, a moody emo look like that one probably would have bought him some peace and solace. At Southside High, it couldn't even buy him an escape from the occasional pat-down.

"I dunno why you're trying so hard with the new kid," Sweet Pea said, chewing off a hunk of his sandwich. It was something repulsive and stale, as were most of the things he brought in his lunch, but he chomped on it anyway.

"If we turn him, it's one less Ghoulie on the streets," Betty said, making up reasons so that her boyfriend wouldn't get suspicious. She didn't think saying 'I want to protect my elementary school soul mate' would be an acceptable answer.

"What's one person in the long run?" Sweet Pea asked, leaning back in his seat, scrunching his nose distastefully in Jughead's direction. "He's not even worth it - a scrawny little nerd. I doubt he even knows how to ride on two wheels and you'd have him ride with us."

Everyone at the table laughed in agreement. Betty pursed her lips, tired of their childish nonsense. Of course those ignorant meatheads would see no value in a person outside physical strength. But Betty knew better. Even though she didn't know Jughead anymore, Betty knew FJIII, and he was a brilliant analyst, good at seeing things others couldn't. Plus he was good with words. If the Serpents had him on their side, someone who could potentially support a truce between the North and South, then maybe Betty would finally see peace in Riverdale.

"Numbers add up in the end Sweet Pea," Betty refuted, gaze roving across the cafeteria, always landing back on Jughead to make sure no one was about to jump him. "Just one person could tip the scales in our favor."

"You think too much Ponytail," Sweet Pea teased, no malice in his words. However, there was some skepticism, the gears in his slow mind working his way towards reasons why she was specifically invested in Jughead.

"You don't think enough," Betty retorted, running her hands through Sweet Pea's hair before leaning in to give him a kiss, washing away any doubts or negative thoughts he may have previously had.

Betty could barely savor the kiss before it was rudely interrupted by the crash of chairs and the squeak of shoes on tile.

Her head swiveled to the epicenter of the storm. Of course, in the few seconds she had taken for herself, Jughead had managed to attract trouble.

He was lying on his back in the middle of the cafeteria, a pack of Ghoulies leering over him. From the looks of things, they must have grabbed him from behind and thrown him onto the floor, the squeaking coming from when Jughead had tripped over his shoes in a vain attempt to stop his fall. He looked terrified, eyes blown wide and fearful at the sight of the Ghoulies.

Betty had no idea what they were going to do to him, but she wasn't going to wait to find out.

She jumped up from her table and stormed over to where Jughead was, situating herself between he and the Ghoulies just like she had done all those years ago.

"Have you guys lost your minds? Or do I have to remind you of the rules?" Betty snapped harshly.

School rules had been the same since they were five years old. Every Southside kid knew they by heart: no gangs, no drugs, no violence - including fights. The Ghoulies were trying to test their limits, push their bounds. It was time to put them back into their place.

"New rules around here, snake," the Ghoulie replied, taunting her. "You've been away too long. Things have changed. Malachi runs this place now."

"I call bullshit."

The Ghoulie leaned back and smiled, amused. "Call it what you want, sweetheart. But that won't change what is."

Did they just expect her to roll over? To accept their bogus claims and move on? Maybe she had been gone a long time, but those idiots were born yesterday if they thought that Betty Cooper was going down that easily.

"Then you tell Malachai that I want to race," Betty propositioned, standing her ground in front of a pack of rabid Ghoulies. The entire cafeteria went quiet. Everyone knew what a race meant. There hadn't been one in months - not since the power struggle that resulted because of Alice Cooper's absence. No one had been brave enough to stand up. Until now. "Serpents win, you take your drugs and your piss poor attitudes and get them out of Southside High."

One stepped forward. His hair was dark, hanging in long greasy strands across his gaunt face. He didn't even have the decency to hide the track marks on his pale arms, using them to gesture to the crowd.

"And when the Ghoulies win?"

"Then the Serpents roll over," Betty replied, her lip curled up in a snarl at the cocky, no-good bastard. "You can continue to pollute the Southside with your trash. We'll even give you Sunnyside Trailer Park."

A hushed murmur ran through the cafeteria as the Ghoulie stepped away to convene with his fellow men. The tension in the space was so thick, it could be cut with a knife. Everyone wanted to know how this would end. All eyes were on Betty, Serpent eyes especially. She had put their asses out on the line; they only hoped she hadn't burned them.

Finally, the Ghoulie reappeared, sticking one bony hand out to seal the deal.

"You have race, snake."

* * *

Street racing was illegal. Everyone in Riverdale knew that. However, that did not stop kids from both sides of the track from piling onto the sidelines to watch the race of the year.

Betty didn't bother with entertaining them. She remained bent under the hood of her car, making some last minute fixes to the engine.

It wasn't really her car - more like the car Tall Boy lent her. It was a classic model: vintage and pristine. A beauty in every sense. Betty would have had more time to admire the craftsmanship had she not been so focused on fine-tuning all the bells and whistles so that the old girl was fit to race. Old cars ran better. At least, that was Betty's preference. She liked having control of the stick, changing the gears and being in absolute control. It made for a better race, and much more fun for the driver.

Slamming the hood shut, she wiped the grease off on her smock, black streaks coloring her clothes like a Van Gogh. She would need to get cleaned up before the race. Showing up covered in oily car gunk did not make for an intimidating entrance.

"Hey Ponytail."

 _About time they showed up_ , Betty thought, ready to rip into her boyfriend and best friend for almost being late to the biggest race of their lives.

However, she didn't get a word out as she was distracted by the botched bandaging wrapped around Sweet Pea's forearm. Even through the shredded white material, she could see red oozing out from the edges. Toni stood off to the side, ready to jump back in case Betty went off. Jughead was there too for some reason, hanging a few feet behind, always the outsider.

"What did you do?" Betty asked frantically, hands hovering over Sweet Pea's arm, torn between wanting to help and not wanting to cause any more damage.

"The genius decided to get in a fight with some Ghoulies out back," Toni explained, looking at Sweet Pea with irritation, as if he were the stupidest ape that ever managed to evolve. Which he was. He was a certified dumb ass and Betty could _kill_ him right now.

"They were talking shit about the Serpents. Had to set them straight," Sweet Pea grumbled, defending himself, and poorly at that.

"Ghoulies talk shit every day," Betty countered, trying to keep cool. "You couldn't go one hour?"

"He needs to go to the hospital," Toni said gravely, knowing what this would mean for the race.

"No!" Sweet Pea grunted, still in pain as he tried to move his arm. "No hospital. I'm racing."

"No, you're not," Toni argued, trying to get it through his belligerently thick skull.

As worried as Betty was about her boyfriend, she was more worried about the race. Without a second, the Serpents would have to forfeit, and to forfeit was to lose. The Southside would have to give up its territory, and Betty was not going to let that happen. Over her dead body would she live in a Ghoulie-run world.

Fire in her veins, she got up and charged over to the only person she knew she could trust to see this through.

"Jughead!"

He started, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, even more surprised to see a furious Betty headed his way.

"What?" he asked, not quite sure what he did to get himself in trouble.

"You know anything about cars?"

"Yeah..."

"Congratulations. You're my new second," she declared, much to everyone's amusement and surprise. "Let's go. Race starts in five."

Betty tore off to gather supplies, leaving a very bewildered Jughead in her wake.

"Don't screw this up," Sweet Pea warned, ramming into Jughead's shoulder as he passed for good measure.

"Good luck," Toni said, patting Jughead on the arm as she pulled Sweet Pea gently behind her. "Come on, let's get you some ice."

Betty did not miss the look of jealousy that crossed Sweet Pea's face when it was Jughead who climbed into the passenger side instead.

Slamming the doors shut, Betty stuck the key in the engine and let it purr, the smell of gasoline burning through the air like a sweet perfume. She pulled on her black leather gloves, gripping the wheel before rolling out of the garage to the starting line. Jughead stared pointedly out the window, surveying the mass of high school students who had poured out to watch the spectacle. They wanted a show? Betty would give them a show.

Toni was to do the honors. She stepped onto the road and untied her scarf from her throat - the only time anyone would ever see her wear a scarf. It was bright red and embroidered with black serpents, impossible to miss. She held it high into the air, everyone buzzing with anticipation. The blood in Betty's ears roared so loudly it drowned everything else out.

Then, Toni let the scarf fall, and the race began.

Tires squealed and smoke billowed as both cars tore down the windy street. It wasn't a particularly hard run, but it was a tricky one if Betty got overconfident and overshot the turns. She just had to outsmart her opponent, get them to make the first mistake so she could secure an easy win.

That was easier said than done, especially when the Ghoulies decided to ram into the passenger's side, sending her skidding across the road.

"Shit!" Betty cursed, realizing she was falling behind.

"Betty look out!"

She barely had time to register Jughead's warning before she took on another hit. This time Betty could hear the grate of metal against the concrete. She was going to lose a tire, or more, if this kept up.

The Ghoulie's second pulled down his window to laugh in their faces, using the momentum they gained from the last hit to propel themselves into the lead.

Betty was furious. This was not how street racing was supposed to go! The Ghoulies raced without honor, without rules. And now they were going to win because of a dirty move? Not if she had anything to say about it.

She revved her engine and closed in on her prey. One hand on the wheel, she reached up to rip the serpent's pin off her jacket. It was old, but still sharp enough to do damage - exactly what she needed to settle the score. Without taking her eyes off the road, Betty handed it to Jughead.

"When I tell you, drop this."

He held the pin in his palm, looking at it as if it would bite him. "Betty...this is cheating..."

"If the Ghoulies are playing dirty, so will we," Betty grit out, jerking the wheel sharply to the left to avoid being slammed once more. She was getting tired of this game of bumper cars. It was time to level the playing field. "On the count of three, you ready?"

Jughead nodded resolutely.

"One..."

Betty floored the gas, the car lurching forward as she took them to speeds they'd never been before.

"Two..."

The car began to shake, hurtling towards the narrow bridge like a bat out of hell. They were going too fast. There was no way they were going to make that turn without losing control, but Betty was not slowing down. A manic grin curled up her lips, savoring the feel of her quick pulse and the adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"Betty...that bridge is too narrow for both cars..." Jughead said uneasily, fingers clutching onto his seat while looking out the window to see the Ghoulies gaining, and fast.

They were so close...

"Betty! Ease up!"

"Three!"

Jughead threw the pin out the window as Betty shifted gears and cut the wheel hard, the car drifting flawlessly around the bend like a scene out of a movie.

And like dominos, the chain of events fell right into place.

The Ghoulies drove over the pin just as they made the turn, and with a pop, their tire blew smoke. The car careened out of control, spinning donuts and turning up smoke on the asphalt before running off the road. Metal smashed into the nearest guard rail, ruining a once pristine automobile and turning it into a crumpled hunk of metal. From the rearview mirror, Betty could see the passengers getting out to chase her, screaming soundless insults her way as she drove around the bend, crossing the finish line with ease.

Screams surrounded her, cries of victory and praise. As soon as she jumped out of the car, Sweet Pea was there to sweep her off her feet, pulling her into a kiss. The display was met with wolf whistles and applause, Betty breathless as her boyfriend swept her off her feet and raised her upon his shoulder. They carried her like the leader she was, the savior of the Southside. Because of her, the Serpents would get to rule unchallenged. Because of her, the Ghoulies couldn't fuck with them anymore.

The Ghoulies, however, were not good losers.

They booed and hissed, shoving at the Serpents they could get their hands on, trying to make their way to Betty. Someone had to snitch to get them to stop, the flashing lights and sirens scattering the spectators like roaches.

"Ghoulies are coming for you!" they spat, venom seeping through their voices as they made to retreat. "We're coming for you!"

* * *

"Run!"

Betty and Jughead sprinted hand in hand out of the dilapidated old house and into the street, not stopping until their lungs burned and it became unbearable to continue any further. Bathed in the glow of the single streetlamp, they allowed themselves to catch their breaths, finding a false sense of security in the dim light and each other.

"I cannot believe we just did that," Jughead panted, completely winded.

Betty nodded her head, unable to form words. Her pulse was racing, adrenaline spiked at the thrill of the horror of it all. Not only that, but the thrill of a new mystery. This was a completely unique high, one she gone far too long without.

Stories were good distractions from the world she lived in. A world on fire. A world full of chaos, danger, and rage. A world that was complicated enough before that race pinned a target on her back. And while sneaking around at midnight in an abandoned part of town behind some rusty old train tracks with the former love of her young life was not exactly considered safe, it was a hell of a lot more fun than a gang war.

"It was worth it."

"I hope so," Jughead said cautiously, always on the hesitant side. "This is gonna be one hell of a story Betty."

He was right. It was going to be a huge story if things panned out. Potentially bigger than Cheryl Blossom, and that was saying something.

A serial killer - The Black Hood - man or myth? And potentially the same serial killer that had plagued Riverdale decades before? This was the kind of story that fed her addiction. Betty could see the possibilities now: another murder solved, another bout of recognition. Maybe this time it would get her somewhere. Maybe this time, she'd made her mark on a bigger scale.

"Couldn't have done it without you," Betty said, relishing the way Jughead's eyes sparkled with mirth.

"How much did it hurt you to admit that?"

Betty rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile from creeping up her ruby red lips.

It was then she noticed that they were still holding hands, fingers interlaced and holding on tight. She was struck by how natural it felt, his hand a familiar and comfortable weight in her own even through the layers of grime, sweat, and leather. She didn't want to let go. But Jughead was pulling away, seemingly embarrassed as he cleared his throat and shoved his hands deep into his pockets - literally the furthest place from hers.

"This thing we've got, it's big. We're going to need help."

It took her a second to register that he was talking about the case, and it took all she had not let her heart sag.

"As much as don't want to agree, you're right," Betty admitted, feeling her ego take a blow. She hated asking people for help, used to doing things by herself. She was independent, and didn't like relying on other people to do her work. "But who the hell would be crazy enough to help us with something like this?"

"I might know some people," Jughead said, the look on his face leaving a bad taste in Betty's mouth.

"Jug..."

"Trust me on this, okay?"

The way he was looking at her with those hazel green eyes blown wide and pleading, it was hard for Betty to say no. Hell, he could have asked her for anything and she probably would have done it. She was so weak for him it made her sick to her own stomach.

"Fine, but if this blows up, I'm taking you down with me."

"Fair," Jughead agreed. "Meet me at Pop's tomorrow after the final bell. You think you can manage that?"

"I'll be there."

* * *

Sitting in Pop's, it felt like Betty was living in some alternate universe.

Firstly, she was there at normal dinner rush, not at off hours, so there were Northsiders everywhere. The place was crawling from ceiling to floor with them and their perky attitudes and self-importance. Secondly, she was standing at the foot of a booth engaging in a riveting round of awkward silence with two walking stereotypes of an uptown girl and a mediocre white boy.

"Betty, this is Archie Andrews and Veronica Lodge. Everyone, this is Betty Cooper."

"Only Jughead can call me Betty. You can call me Ponytail."

There was only more silence, the two Northsiders watching with rapt attention as she slunk into the booth next to Jughead and immediately started picking at his fries. He had gotten her a milkshake, the slightly melted vanilla concoction calling her name. Betty also fought the urge to roll her eyes. Why did Northsiders feel the need to stare at her as if she were some kind of wild, exotic animal. Hadn't they seen another human being before? But, these were Jughead's friends - friends that he assured her were insane enough to hunt down a serial killer - so she put in the effort to be on her best behavior...even if it killed her.

"I remember you," Betty said, pointing at the Ed Sheeran wannabe who was apparently named Archie (as if he could get anymore mediocre and white). "You and Jughead used to play in the lot behind FP's trailer."

"Our dads are friends. They work construction together."

"Cute."

The conversation died immediately afterwards, silence reigning supreme once again. This was beginning to feel like a giant waste of time, and Betty had half the nerve to get up, get back on her bike, and leave.

"Why are we here, Jughead?" Daddy's Little Princess™ asked, leaning forward across the booth as she flipped her perfectly curled black hair over one shoulder.

"Betty and I are working on a story, and we think we might have found something."

"What story?" Archie asked.

 _At least he seems interested_ , Betty thought. Maybe he wasn't useless after all.

"The Black Hood killer."

"Are you serious Jughead?" Archie asked though it sounded more like an accusation, eyebrows nearly shooting off his forehead in shock. "What the hell dude! Are you out of your mind?"

"I know how it sounds -"

"Absolutely crazy. That's how that sounds," Veronica ganged up against him with Archie, both of them looking positively scandalized.

Betty figured this kind of reaction would happen.

"We think we know how to find him," Betty interjected, keeping everyone on task.

"And why on Earth would you want to find him?"

"So I can stop him. So I can expose him," Betty replied as if it were obvious.

"While that's all well and good, but given your scales I can't help but wonder if there is some ulterior motive to your altruism."

Veronica Lodge did not play games; she went straight for the jugular. It was a trait Betty could admire, but unattractive on a girl who needed to learn her place. Betty leaned forward across the table and cocked her head to the side, giving her best simpering smile.

"It may surprise you, _princess_ , but Riverdale is my home too, and I care about what happens...in _both_ parts."

The glare Veronica gave Betty was enough to make grown men tremble. She squared her shoulders, ready to pounce, when Archie intervened.

"So you can find him, great. Why do you need Ronnie and I?"

"We can't take this guy on alone. We need help, backup, and we were hoping - "

"He's hoping," Betty corrected, earning a glare from Jughead.

" _We_ were hoping it would be you guys."

"You want us to help you catch a serial killer?" Archie summarized, looking between Jughead and Betty as if they were even crazier than before. Veronica shared his look, swallowing thickly. She fidgeted where she sat, fiddling with her black painted nails. Betty knew two wusses when she saw them.

"What's wrong? You scared?" she taunted, red lips quirking into a smug half smile.

"Any sane person would be," Archie countered, crossing his arms over his chest as he brooded. He looked conflicted, like he wanted to help Jughead but valued his own life more. Betty couldn't blame him for that. It was the smart and safe option. Betty just never had the luxury of either; perhaps that was why it wasn't that much of a problem for her jump in headfirst.

"What the hell. Count me in," Veronica said, throwing her hands up as she caved. Maybe life was too boring in paradise. Maybe she wanted to rebel. Whatever the reason, Betty was glad for the help.

"I guess that means I'm in too," Archie sighed reluctantly, looking at Veronica with exasperation. With a look like that, Betty could not help but wonder how many other situations the princess had gotten him in.

"Really?" Jughead asked, disbelieving. The hope in his voice was so raw that it almost made Betty flinch.

"We can't let you go out and put yourself in danger alone, now can we?" Veronica chided, giving Jughead a supportive smile before narrowing her eyes in warning "But if this gets me killed, I'm haunting you both until the end of time."

"Doesn't sound too terrible. We'd make one bad ass ghost gang," Betty quipped wryly.

Surprisingly enough, everyone laughed.

Jughead raised his glass in a toast to a prosperous partnership, and with a clink of milkshakes, Betty felt like something deeper had just been forged between the four of them.

* * *

Betty slammed the files she recently procured from her connection at the sheriff's station on her desk.

She was fuming, full of unbridled anger, all of it aimed at her knuckle-headed boyfriend.

"What did you just say to me?" she asked, her rage a barely-controlled hurricane that was begging to be unleashed. She inched closer to Sweet Pea, eyes narrowed into cruel slits as she dared him to open up Pandora's Box.

"You heard me," he retorted, not backing away even if backing away was for his own good. He glared back at her, brow furrowed. "I swear it's like ever since you came back from upstate this summer, you've been a totally different person!"

"What are you getting at Sweet Pea?"

"I don't even know who you are anymore Ponytail. We used to be on the same page, but now...I dunno. It's like you're somewhere else," he fumbled with his words, his frustration making it hard to keep his thoughts straight. "And since when do you hang out with Northsiders?"

"How the hell do you - "

"Some of the guys were on the Northside the other night - saw you at Pop's with the Jones kid and two preps," Sweet Pea cut her off, leaving Betty to flounder for her next words, completely outraged and stunned at his audacity.

"What, so you're following me now?"

"Get off your high horse," Sweet Pea scoffed, scrunching his nose up at her. Betty had never been so disrespected by someone so close to her before. "You know that Serpents watch each other's backs. We're everywhere."

Betty didn't owe him an explanation. She didn't owe him shit. Except that underneath his gruff demeanor, Sweet Pea looked genuinely hurt and he was channelling this hurt into anger. Anger directed towards her that lashed out viciously and without preamble. If the truth would soothe this fight so he could get over himself and his wounded pride, she would tell him.

"They're helping me with a story."

"Oh, a _story_ ," Sweet Pea said exaggeratedly. "Always with the _stories_."

Betty did not like his tone at all. She had hoped the truth would solve things. Now, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and braced herself for a fight.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it's supposed to mean," Sweet Pea said, looking her dead in the eye. "It means that time and time again, you're choosing your hobbies over your family."

"For years I have put the Southside first. When my mom got locked away, _I_ am the one who stepped up and has been leading the Serpents in her place, so don't you _dare_ accuse me of disloyalty," Betty shut that shit down, closing in on her asshole of a boyfriend who at least had the decency to look contrite. "Besides, I have never wanted to stay in the Serpents forever. You know that! I told you that once I graduate, I'm getting out of this town. I'm going to college, I'm going to - "

" - be a reporter, write for the New York Times, yeah yeah yeah I know the story," Sweet Pea finished, leaving Betty astonished. Every time she had talked about this before, he had been more than supportive. Now, he sounded like he was mocking her, which stung more than she cared to admit.

"Then why are you acting like this is some big surprise?"

"Because I thought that you would have gotten it by now," Sweet Pea retorted, shoving his hands in the pockets of his worn black jeans. "We're Serpents, Ponytail. That's not something you can just leave behind. That's not something you can just forget. All these dreams you have of being a hotshot reporter, they're just dreams. It's not reality, not for us, and I think it's time you accept that."

Betty staggered backwards. It felt like someone had taken a steel-toed boot to her gut.

Was all of Sweet Pea's encouragement, the hours he spent in the Red and Black with her, the hours spent pouring over her board and listening to her rant, all lies? Did he ever mean any of the loving things he said? Did he ever support her at all? Or was it a lie, like some sick game, getting her hopes up and dangling a carrot in front of her nose and watching her dance, knowing he was leading her to fall?

"You know what Sweet Pea, go fuck yourself."

The vitriol in her voice surprised her. It surprised Sweet Pea too. For the first time, he looked regretful.

"Come on Ponytail..."

"You may be stuck in this dead-end hellhole, but I'm not," Betty seethed, rage blooming in her chest like flowers, vines wrapping around her heart, thorns digging into the sensitive organ, squeezing the life out of it. She felt so many things at once, so many terrible things, but it was easiest to be angry.

It was easier to be angry than let herself drown slowly and painfully in the sorrow of her breaking heart.

* * *

When Betty was upset, she smoked.

She drove down to Sweet Water River and smoked a lot. She smoked so much that she went through an entire pack in an hour and then promptly threw up. Whether the vomit was strictly from the nicotine or her own heartsickness, she could not be sure.

What made her feel worse was the sense of freedom. She walked away from Sweet Pea and felt like a burden had been lifted off her shoulders. It loaded her with guilt and self loathing. What kind of heartless bitch felt better after fighting with someone they were supposed to love?

But did she really love him?

It was something she had been asking herself more and more these days. Especially since Jughead came back and stirred up old feelings. And then they started spending time together at the Red and Black. Betty knew it drove Sweet Pea crazy, that he didn't approve, yet she did it anyway. She didn't even care about how he felt.

They needed to talk, to work out wherever or _whatever_ they were. They didn't break up. No, that would have been far nastier. But the one fight brought up a lot of long-buried feelings on both sides. Betty now knew what Sweet Pea really thought about her future, and in turn she allowed herself to accept what she had been thinking for a long time:

She and Sweet Pea were on two different, diverging paths, and she was clinging onto a dying thing.

 _Fuck_ , she needed more cigarettes to deal with this.

Mounting her bike, she tore down the dirt path back to the windy one-lane highway that connected the Southside to the Northside. The asphalt got progressively rockier and pot-hole ridden the further she got to the Southside. There was a gas station right before she hit Sunnyside Trailer Park; the old guy who ran it usually gave her Marlboros at a discounted rate because he owed her mom. Betty had already been in there once earlier, but she didn't care about what one old man thought of her bad habits.

It was dark by the time she pulled into the lot. She was the only person there, nothing but the neon 'open' sign flickering in the window. It was easy enough to walk in and ask for the cigarettes, the old man behind the counter grunting as he was forced to move and serve his customer. He didn't get far, however, because in the next moment, the roaring sound of motors filled the outside lot. Motors and shouting.

The old man sighed and rolled his eyes, hobbling over to the phone to call the sheriff's office. No doubt he was used to the violence. Betty was too, but her bike was outside, and she would be damned if she let some delinquents trash her most prized possession.

She ran out the door, cigarettes forgotten on the counter.

Nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her.

A group of Ghoulies - five of them decked in leather and metal - circled around a singular person knocked down to the ground. He was propped up on all fours, dark hair ruffled and familiar grey beanie resting a few feet away.

Betty's stomach crawled up into her throat, panic rushing through her veins as she realized that Jughead was about to be decimated.

 _How the hell did he keep finding himself in these situations?_

"Hey!" Betty shouted, her voice rough as she hastily ran over to the epicenter of the fight.

The Ghoulies looked up, beady eyes examining the newest addition to the fray. Their faces were covered nose-down with masks that looked like skeletons, smiles carved wide and made of darkly comical bone. One of them gave her more attention than the others, parking his bike and stepping forward to ward her off, flashing the metal blade in his hand as a warning.

"Scram blondie, before you get hurt."

"The only one getting hurt is you assholes if you keep beating on my friend."

"Talk talk talk," he sneered, hand mimicking her mouth moving. "You got a problem why don't you fucking do something about it?"

Betty did not need to be told twice.

Before the guy could toss his head back and howl with laughter, Betty lurched forward and punched him right in the jaw.

* * *

Back in FP's trailer, Jughead broke out the first aid kit.

There were bandages and cotton balls and a bunch of other things that Betty thought were totally unnecessary until she actually caught a glance at her face in the mirror when she went to wash up. It looked as though someone had taken a meat tenderizer to the right side of her face, a black and blue ring already forming around her eye while the gash across her cheekbone was probably deep enough to require stitches.

She sighed. _The price you pay when you tangle with the Ghoulies._

A trailer park emergency job would have to suffice. There was no way she was going to the hospital this late at night, not with the Ghoulies still lurking around the streets. She'd won this round, but there would be more rounds to come. They said they wanted retribution. Betty knew this was only the beginning.

She sat down across from Jughead, closing her eyes and bracing herself for the sting of antiseptic. It burned worse than she expecting, hissing through clenched teeth as Jughead gently swabbed the area, clearing away dried blood and grime. Through cracked lids, she could make out the determination is his eyes and the firm downward tug of his mouth. He frowned deeply, clearly upset.

"What the hell were you thinking Betty?"

His voice reflected barely-restrained anger. Not at her, but at the situation. At the fact that she had once again recklessly put herself in harm's way.

"I was thinking that you were going to get your ass beat if I didn't do something," She said, wincing as the swab pressed down on particularly bruised area. " _I_ should be the one ripping into _you_. Were you trying to get yourself killed? What were you even doing to attract Ghoulie attention anyway?"

"I was passing by and saw your bike. Thought we could talk more about the Black Hood case since you weren't at the Red and Black earlier. Ghoulies were driving through, and they saw me first," Jughead gave the brief version, pulling back the cloth and giving her wounds one final assessment before deeming them acceptable. "The epitome of bad timing."

She bit her tongue, refraining from telling him 'I told you so'. This was life was like without protection, and it was miserable. But as miserable as his life probably was, it was better than him being a Serpent. For some reason, Betty's stomach curled into knots when she thought of Jughead wearing that leather jacket. She felt ill when she envisioned his initiation, of the snake wrapping itself around his arm, fangs piercing his skin and marking him forever.

She didn't want to bring him into that world. She wanted to keep him safe from it.

"Guess it was a good thing I was there to help," Betty said, trying to lighten the mood.

It backfired. Jughead only scowled deeper.

"I could have taken it."

"No, you couldn't," she replied honestly, the seriousness in her tone the only thing keeping Jughead from reopening his mouth, because deep down, he knew it too. He would have been crushed to a pulp and left for dead. Because that was what the Southside did to you, and if you weren't trained to take a beating, it would chew you up and spit you out before you even got the chance to fight back. Jughead Jones had spent far too much time away from the Southside to withstand its brand of cruelty. He had gone soft, and the Ghoulies, the Serpents, and everyone else knew it.

"Why did you do it? Why do you always stick your neck out for me? It's not like it does you any good."

He was right. He had caused her nothing but problems since the moment he showed his face back in Riverdale. But damn if these past few weeks hadn't been some of the most exciting and rewarding weeks Betty had had in a long time. Every cut, every bruise, every scrape, fight, and near-death race was worth it. Jughead Jones was worth it. If Betty Cooper knew nothing else, she knew that.

If only _he_ knew...if only she could tell him all that he had forgotten.

Why couldn't she tell him? If there was any time to make a confession, now was the time.

"Because I made you a promise, remember?" Betty asked, looking up into those swimming hazel green eyes laced with confusion. She took a deep, shaky breath. Now or never. "I told you that so long as we were friends, I would protect you. And I always keep my promises."

The room went so quiet that she could hear a pin drop. It was maddening, watching Jughead's forehead scrunch together in confusion, trying to make sense of her words. He'd been quiet for too long, Betty started to second guess herself.

She had made a mistake. A massive, irreparable mistake.

How was she going to fix this? What could she possibly say now to save herself from looking like some kind of freak?

But then the fog cleared, and oh, how breathtaking it was to watch Jughead finally put all the pieces together. To watch realization dawning across his face and the wonder that sparked in those beautiful eyes.

Betty dared not move, her heart stopping as he reached out to frame her face with his hands, touch so gentle it was barely there, like he was holding a treasured memory.

"Betty Cooper..."

Then he kissed her, and the rest of the world faded away.


	3. Chapter 3

In the light of the first morning rays, two young lovers buried themselves in a fort of blankets, lying side by side, face to face, with no intention of going anywhere anytime soon.

The bed was used for nothing but sleep, both parties still fully clothes outside of shoes discarded by the door and leather jacket neatly hung on the back of a chair. But still, there was a sense of intimacy that was unmistakable, a haze that glossed over both Betty and Jughead that was practically electric. Like they were living in stolen time, a paradise uninterrupted.

Time was a thief that crept in with each passing second, pushing the two in different directions: Jughead on the trail of a killer, and Betty towards her duty to the Serpents. However, neither was ready to give this up just yet, basking in the limited moments they had left.

"Betty Cooper...how could I forget you?" Jughead murmured in wonder, those hazel-green eyes taking in every botched, bruised detail of her face.

"Toni thinks that we blocked each other out, forgot we even existed because it was easier than living with the pain of separation."

Jughead hummed, mulling over this strange theory, and thinking of no better explanation, came to accept it.

"When did you remember?"

"The first day in the Red and Black, when I was supposed to give you the tour."

Jughead's expression twisted into something darker, ruining the surreal tranquility that surrounded them.

"You knew all this time and didn't tell me?"

It was hard to keep the hurt out of his voice, Betty hearing it through the cracks while he tried to remain neutral. It stabbed at her heart, making her feel guilty for keeping him in the dark, even if it was not intentional.

"I dunno...I guess I wasn't sure if you wanted to remember. I didn't even know if _I_ wanted to remember," she admitted, now trying to run away from the intensity of his gaze. She felt naked, her heart exposed in a way that she had not felt before. "Things are...messy, Jug. There's so much that's changed since we were eight."

"Apparently," he harrumphed, turning over so that he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

They lied side by side in silence for a while, trying to process everything before it all shifted again.

"Why'd you leave, Jug?" she asked so quietly it was more of a whisper. Suddenly, she felt eight years old and small, fragile as if her entire world hinged on his answer.

"Mom never said at the time - just that Dad was gone and that we had to leave," Jughead sighed, pulling Betty in closer so that made talking about their separation easier. "I found out a few years later that it was because he'd been thrown in jail. They gave him five years for reckless endangerment and running deals for the Serpents. After he got out, he still had a hard time staying out of trouble. Getting caught for possession, DUIs, in and out of AA, you name it."

"What made you come back?"

"I got a letter from him at the start of the summer. Said he'd finally pulled himself together, that he'd been sober for a year and had a steady job working construction with Fred Andrews. He wanted another chance, and I said yes."

"Why do you look so sad about it?"

"Mom didn't agree. She told me I was stupid enough to believe him, and that if I wanted to come back to Riverdale, it would be without her and Jellybean," he finished, glaring up at the ceiling with melancholy. Betty could only imagine how much it must have hurt to have his own mother reject him, to have to leave his sister behind in pursuit of something unknown. "I couldn't live with myself knowing that my Dad was trying to be a better person and I didn't at least give him a chance to prove that he wasn't the deadbeat he used to be. I didn't want to have that on my conscience, you know?"

"I understand," Betty assured, curling up to him, trying to be as comforting as she could despite the fact that she was comprised of iron and rust and other hard, cold things that were not made to welcome the softness of vulnerability. "I had the same thing happen with my dad."

Jughead shifted his head on the pillow, looking into her eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah," Betty said, finding not the usual bitterness she harbored for her father, but instead a heavy sadness akin to grief as she cracked open another layer of her thick shell. "He said he wanted to try to be there for me, that he wanted to mend bridges. But it didn't work out..."

"I'm sorry," Jughead murmured, his lips finding their way to her hairline to place a gentle kiss.

"It's not your fault. I just think he felt guilty, like he had to do something because I was his daughter and it was either take me in or throw me to the wolves."

"You seem to be doing just fine with the wolves," Jughead replied, rubbing her arm.

"Serpents look after their own," Betty recited, the words falling from her lips without thinking.

"They promised your mom?"

"No," Betty shook her head, blonde hair spilling across the pillow. "They would have taken care of me regardless. I am one of them - a fully initiated member. Being Alice Cooper's daughter just adds a certain layer of respect."

"I don't want to pry, but how did your mom end up getting locked up? I read the story, and it didn't make any sense. It seemed to be grasping at straws."

"Because they were," Betty said, trying to stave away the anger that usually came with talking about her mother. "Clifford Blossom purposely chose to butcher his daughter in the basement of the Whyte Wyrm to divert suspicions, and when my mom went in to open shop the next morning, there was a bloody body waiting for her. So she covered it up and threw Cheryl's body in the river to protect the Southside and prevent a witch hunt, which didn't even end up mattering because I had to go and dig up the video recording..."

Her tone turned self-loathing, the injustice of the situation settling in her bones. God knew her mother was not perfect; Alice Cooper had committed more sins than Judas, and yet, she did not deserve to go to prison. She was only trying to do right by her people, and that was worth something. That was worth more than something.

And then Betty, her own daughter, had to go and stab her in the back and unravel all those good deeds. Had to go play Nancy Drew and prove herself as a reporter. Had to recover the disposed tapes and show them to the sheriff, causing a chain of events that she was still feeling now: resentment, drug-searches, police presence, and so much more.

It was all her fault.

If only she wasn't so goddamn naive. If only she had listened to her mother. If only...

Betty blinked furiously, pushing back the tears that had glassed over her eyes. It was then she realized that she had yet to finish her story, Jughead looking at her with a mix of concern and sympathy. There was so much emotion there, she felt like she could cry for a whole other reason.

"There was no real evidence that my mom was even there that night, but because she was in charge of the Serpents, she had to take the fall. They just needed someone to blame."

"They?"

"The Blossoms? The Northside? The justice system?" Betty shrugged, hating how helpless she felt. "Sometimes I feel like the whole damn world is out to get us."

"It wouldn't be too crazy. First with me, then with your mom. What ever did you do to piss the universe off?" Jughead mused irately, making fun of the situation, basking in its irony. "What was it that people used to say? That we were some kind of fairytale? Look at us now. Hardly a fairytale aren't we? More like Romeo and Juliet."

"I hope not," Betty sighed, fingers tracing patterns across his chest. "I don't want to die."

* * *

Even though they were in limbo, as soon as Sweet Pea laid eyes on Betty's face when she walked into the cafeteria, he shot up from his seat and stormed over to her.

He looked distressed, rage and concern splashed across every line of his furrowed brow.

"Who the hell did this to you?" he demanded, framing her face gently between his calloused hands, afraid of causing more damage. "Because I swear to God I will _kill_ them."

"It looks a lot worse than it is," Betty dismissed, her own hands reaching up to clutch gently on Sweet Pea's wrists, diverting him from the war path. As strange as it was, not knowing how to act around him, she still felt the urge to lean into his chest and let him wrap her up in his arms.

"Holy shit girl. That's pretty bad," Toni said, shocked as she took in all the bruises across her jaw that had already turned a lovely green and yellow color. Best of all was the black and blue ring right under her eye framed by the cut that was still held together by a butterfly bandage.

"It looks like someone took a bat to your face, Ponytail," Sweet Pea growled, the animalistic way he bared his teeth unmistakeable. "Just tell me who, and I'll make sure they _never_ touch you again."

Betty knew that look in his eyes: that look of rage and vengeance. All of the other Serpents at the table shared his feelings, nodding along with fervor. If she told him that the Ghoulies were to blame, Sweet Pea would ride out that minute to go and burn Malachai's home to the ground. But as satisfying as that would be, Betty knew it would only make things worse.

"I got into a fight, and I won. That's it," Betty concluded, not wanting to hash things out. Besides, her face was the least of her worries right now. There were much more pressing matters to discuss with her fellow Serpents. "Why is there JJ in school?"

"I dunno," Sweet Pea shrugged as he looked around, just as disturbed to see the pixie stick tubes jutting out of jacket pockets and backpacks. Students weren't even trying to be discrete about it. "It was just...here...when we came in this morning."

"But we raced for it," Betty insisted, growing heated a the nerve these lowlives had. "The Ghoulies and I had a deal."

"You did cheat Ponytail," Toni reminded, looking down guiltily at her lunch after calling out her best friend.

"Only because they were," Betty hissed, getting up from the table.

She was ready to raise hell, glaring at the table full of Ghoulies who were lounging back, looking like kings. Their egos certainly were inflated today. Not for long.

"Don't start anything Ponytail," Sweet Pea advised, grabbing her by the arm before she had gotten her second leg over the bench of the table. "Not right now. Not again."

Betty stared incredulously at her boyfr-fellow Serpent. "You expect me to just let this go? After all I risked?"

"No, I'm asking you to think before you go over there and try to rip their balls off."

"I cannot believe I am hearing this from the most punch-happy person I know."

"I would rather you stay here and bide your time than have _that_ ," Sweet Pea argued finger circling around her bruised face, "happen to your entire body!"

Sweet Pea and Betty locked themselves into a staring contest, neither one backing down. That was the problem with two stubborn people. No one was willing to back down, and both of them thought that they were right. In the past, these would usually end in some kind of make out session, the intensity affecting them in a different way. Now, while Sweet Pea's grip on her arm tightened, Betty just felt the anger boil and boil and boil under her skin until the nails digging into her palms broke skin.

" _Shit,_ " Toni cursed, trying to hide her head in her jacket. "Drugs bust."

Well, that was one way to end a standoff.

Students scattered like roaches as security guards and deputies from the sheriff's station burst through the double doors. There had to be at least a dozen of them, and Betty felt the similar rush of adrenaline course through her veins. Fight or flight. While she had wanted to fight the Ghoulies, all she wanted to do was run from the cops as fast as she could.

Sweet Pea and Toni were two steps ahead of her, Joaquin scouting all four of them a danger-free path out of the if they weren't dealing, just being a Serpent could get them in a world of trouble. Betty let herself be pulled along like a puppy, Sweet Pea's grip unrelenting. Before, he latched on in defiance. Now, as they wove their way through dilapidated, graffiti-covered halls, he latched on and pulled her close out of protection. Sweet Pea only let her go once they reached her locker.

"Get your shit and let's go," Sweet Pea instructed, his tone short and on edge. It was nothing personal. It was just how he got when he was stressed.

Betty nodded deftly, spinning the combination into the scratched black pad. Her hands shook as she dialed in the numbers. The first attempt didn't work, and she cursed under her breath. Sweet Pea looked antsy, pulling his fingers through his hair.

"Hurry up Ponytail!"

Dogs barked, jowls snapping at the students who were shoved up to either side of the locker banks, blocking off any other exits to prevent runners. Their noses sniffed out illicit substances, stopping every few feet for an officer to ram a student up against the unforgiving metal, wrench the Jingle Jangle from their pockets, and cuff them while they broke into their locker and took out any other contraband they might be hiding.

They stopped in front of her.

Everyone stared.

"Open your locker, please," the officer instructed, his voice gruff and unkind.

Betty gaped like a fish. She didn't understand what was going on. She turned to Sweet Pea for help, but he was being pushed back so that the dogs could have better access to the area.

"W-what?"

"I won't ask again. Open the locker."

The tone was one not to be trifled with, especially not when the officer had a gun strapped to the holster on his belt. Betty nodded and did as she was told, hand trembling worse than before as she went to spin in her combination one more time. This didn't make any sense. She didn't have any drugs. She never had any drugs. Why were they singling her out? What was happening?

But, as her locker clicked and the door creaked open, out fell what looked like a waterfall of Jingle Jangle, the brightly colored sticks falling to the floor in a pile at her feet. Time slowed to a crawl, the horror of the situation finally hitting Betty like a ton of bricks.

"Those aren't mine - "

Betty tried to explain, but she didn't get another word out before she was shoved face first against the lockerbank. The bruised side of her face smashed against the grate of her locker, radiating more pain than she was willing to admit. The cuffs dug into her wrists, biting at the sensitive skin. She would have scratches and bruises there too, that was certain.

"Ponytail!" Sweet Pea shouted, trying to push past the security guards who were holding him back. He looked like a man on a war path, trying desperately to get to her to no avail.

Sweet Pea screamed for her, fighting the entire walk out to the front of the school where all the other drug addicts and dealers sat with their legs crossed and heads down on the sidewalk.

Then it hit her.

She was being arrested. She had a record now. There was no going back. Gone was any chance of her getting into college. She was going to be stuck in this dead end town for the rest of her life just like her mother. Her life was over.

Once inside, Betty careened her head back against the seat of the police cruiser, waiting for the tears that never came.

* * *

Betty hated jails.

Cinderblock walls and cold damp air did nothing to lift her terrible mood. She knew she should be grateful, should be thanking the officers for not throwing her behind bars. She knew she should find the good samaritan that let her off on bail and repay them, even if the samaritan was Tall Boy who also let every other Serpent caught in the bust walk free. She knew she should be far away from any kind of cell.

But there she was, following the grim-faced guard through fluorescent-lit halls until reached what looked like a pathetic excuse for a telephone booth: a black corded phone attached to the wall, nothing but a pane of bulletproof glass separating her from the woman in the orange jumpsuit that sat on the other side.

Betty heaved a sigh and threw herself into the chair, picking up the phone, unprepared to get her ass handed to her.

"Elizabeth Cooper, have you lost your damn mind?" Alice Cooper hissed through the line, her words muffled by static but still devastating in their accuracy.

Betty winced, trying to stay tough. She had had enough breakdowns for one day, and having her mom against her was not how she wanted to end it.

"They weren't mine, Mom," Betty sighed, screwing her eyes shut so she could control the tremor in her voice. Just thinking about it made her feel woozy, unsteady. Like the ground was going to part and swallow her whole. "Someone put the Jingle Jangle in my locker. I think it was the Ghoulies."

"If I had a nickel for every time I heard a Serpent say that..."

"Yeah but I'm not just a Serpent, am I?" Betty snapped, not liking the accusation. Her mother was all eye rolls and skeptical disgust. It made Betty feel worthless, like her mother was ashamed of her. "I'm your daughter. You know I would _never_ deal in drugs."

"You've done a lot of things recently I thought you'd never do Betty."

Betty bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted blood.

"Someone had to fill the hole you left. Someone had to step up. I was only trying to do what you would do."

Her mother slammed her fists on the table, making Betty jump.

"I didn't want you to be me, I wanted you to be better!"

They sat in a staring match for a long time, Betty heavily breathing, blue eyes sparkling with angry tears while Alice tried to instill the fear of God into her daughter. Betty wondered when it got this way, when she and her mother stopped being on the same page. When everything turned into such a goddamn struggle.

Betty just felt tired. So, so tired.

"Just tell me who it was Mom," Betty pleaded, at her wit's end. "You have to have an idea. Tell me who would do this, and I'll leave you alone."

Alice Cooper clenched her jaw, teeth grinding down in defiance. For a moment, Betty thought that she was going to tell her to fuck off, to go home and forget about everything.

But then her mouth opened, and the most unexpected name fell out.

* * *

"Hey girlfriend," Penny Peabody greeted as Betty stepped into her office, all false cheer and a sneer of a smile on those overly red lips. "I was wondering when you were going to stop by."

"You're making deals with the Ghoulies behind my back?"

Betty cut straight to the point, not bullshit. Funnily enough, Penny didn't even bat an eye. She didn't even lose that damn smile. If anything, the snake charmer grinned wider, crueler, as if she could finally shed her skin and be the monster that lurked underneath.

"Right to business," Penny clicked her tongue, pushing papers around as if Betty was only worth half her time. "I admire your spirit, Betty. You really seem to care about the Southside, which is rare. But you should leave the decision making to the adults. The complex politics of Riverdale aren't things to be meddled with by some little girl with a savior complex."

"So it was you. You had the drugs put in my locker," Betty stated blankly, horrified by the treachery one woman could be capable of. And she called herself a Serpent...it was disgusting.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way. But, honestly, you were getting to be a pain in my ass. Couldn't have you racing the Ghoulies out of town. Bad for business."

"Business? You've put Jingle Jangle in _school,_ Penny! School is - "

" - a safe space, blah blah blah," Penny mocked, rolling her eyes at Betty's gung-ho attitude, looking down upon her as if she were some kind of naive child. "That's all in the past. Times are changing, and it's time the Serpents jump on board."

"The Serpents aren't drug runners," Betty spat, fed up with the woman's piss poor attitude. "We aren't puppets on a string to come running at your beck and call!"

"But aren't you?" Penny shot back, looking rather full of herself. "You want your mother out of jail, right?"

"Yes," Betty grit, knowing exactly what Penny was going to say next.

"Then you'll keep your mouth shut about running these drugs and do exactly as I say. Otherwise, I'll make sure Alice Cooper rots behind bars for the rest of her miserable existence."

It was textbook blackmail, and Betty cursed herself for not seeing it sooner.

Her eyes stung with tears that she refused to let loose. She would not break in front of Penny. She would not give the snake charmer the satisfaction in knowing that she won. Betty felt broken and helpless and trapped. And she hated it.

"Why do you hate my mother so much?" Betty asked tersely through a closed throat.

"Because Alice Cooper ruined my life, and if she's not here, then someone has to repay her debts."

The look in Penny's eyes was unforgiving. As cold as ice and laced with bitter venom. This was a revenge scheme long awaited, and Betty was the unlucky sucker who fell right into her trap.

* * *

Betty hunched over the booth at Pop's, staring listlessly at her melting vanilla milkshake. She had ordered one because she thought it would make her feel better, add a silver lining to this very shitty no good week. But one sip in and it was too sweet - teeth rotting sweet - and Betty couldn't stand it. Her life was bitter and acrid and sweet things had no place being anywhere near her.

The bell chimed, signaling the arrival of someone new. Betty knew who it was before the grey beanie popped into sight.

"Where've you been?" Betty asked blankly, not taking her eyes off the condensation that grew on the milkshake glass. "I called an hour ago."

She wasn't sure why she invited Jughead to Pop's. Maybe she had thought that he could cheer her up as well, make the crazy shit in her life just _stop_. But Jughead was sweet too, and he was only being dragged down by her. Betty could see that now, and it hurt. What hurt more was the judgement and disappointment she was going to see in his eyes once he realized that for himself.

"Running down leads for the Black Hood case."

"You've been skipping school to work for that?" Betty scoffed, rolling her eyes at the dumbassery. It was easier to pretend everything was okay when she was the one ripping into people. "Go to class, Jug. Now that I've been suspended for two weeks, I'll have plenty of time to run down those leads."

"Oh right, Toni told me about that," Jughead said, looking at Betty skeptically. "Mind telling me what you were doing with all those drugs?"

Betty rolled her eyes again, cutting a glare at Jughead as if daring him to believe that she could be capable of something like that. After sitting as her second during that race, he should have known better.

"They weren't mine. Someone set me up."

"Someone?"

"Penny Peabody."

Jughead's brow furrowed in confusion. "Your mom's attorney?"

"Yeah."

"I don't follow."

"You don't need to. I've got it handled."

Jughead frowned deeper. "I don't like the sound of that."

"I said I've got it handled," Betty repeated firmly, shutting any further conversation on that topic. The less Jughead knew about what she was planning, the better she could protect him. "How're Princess and Ginger holding up their end of the investigation?"

"They haven't seen anything weird at Riverdale High as of late, but they're keeping their eyes open," Jughead moved on reluctantly, still giving Betty side eye. While she normally admired his persistence in search of the truth, in this instance, she wished he would just let it go. "Last I heard they wanted to interview some janitor, said he might know something about the killer."

"Good...that's good..." Betty mumbled, looking outside the window, distracted by all the happy go lucky kids smiling and laughing - kids with their whole lives ahead of them, kids who didn't know what it was like to struggle for everything in life, only to have it all ripped away. The lucky bastards.

"Hey, are you alright?" Jughead asked, reaching over to place a hand on top of hers, pulling her back into the present. Until then, she hadn't even noticed she was shaking. "Talk to me."

"I'm fine," she lied.

She was so sick of lying. But instead of confront the truth like a healthy, mature adult, she took out a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out instead. Her lighter was somewhere in her pockets, if only she knew which one...

"I really wish you wouldn't."

Betty looked up to meet Jughead's gaze, his forehead scrunched up in worry.

"Wouldn't what?"

"Smoke," Jughead answered, looking gravely at the cigarette unlit between her fingers. "It's not good for you."

Betty stared at the pack of unopened cigarettes. She thought about cancer, how it would eat her body, eating her alive from the inside out. But she also thought about her mother, rotting behind bars for a crime she did not commit. She thought about Cheryl Blossom and the bullet that ripped through her skull like it was butter, how the betrayal of seeing her father pull the trigger must have broken not only her mind, but her heart. She thought about the woman strangled to death by her cello bow and how her final breaths must have burned so much more than the sting of nicotine.

Betty let out a shaky sigh, and made up her mind.

"There are worse ways to die."

* * *

"You're making a mistake!" Penny shrieked, writhing in her binds as she tried to wiggle herself loose.

"I don't think so," Betty replied shortly.

She nodded her head in Toni's direction, signaling the girl and the rest of their gang to start the real work. While Penny was helpless to stop them, the young Serpents started pouring gasoline around the perimeter of the warehouse, dumping the foul-smelling liquid everywhere they could: overtop of crates, furniture, and the piles of drugs Penny had spent months stockpiling for Malachai.

"You stupid little girl! You don't know what you're doing!"

Wrong. Betty knew exactly what she was doing, and there was no going back.

"Pest control."

Penny must have noticed the sincerity in her eyes, the void of emotion scared Betty herself. She though that she would be terrified. The entire ride to the warehouse, she thought that she would chicken out. She thought that she didn't have this kind of violence in her. She was wrong. Now that she was there, staring her enemy in he eye, watching Penny come to the realization that _yes, this was really happening_ , she realized she didn't feel much of anything at all. Just a sense of overwhelming justice, like she was about to set the world right again.

The younger Serpents finished up their work, nodding in Betty's direction. It was done.

Betty looked at Sweet Pea, who then proceeded to drag Penny's chair across the concrete, the woman screaming and swearing the entire journey until Sweet Pea shoved the chair against a pile of fuel-soaked box of drugs. The chair teetered and fell to its side, Penny falling to the ground along with it.

She shimmied in the new position, bearing the visible skin where her mark was inked. "Serpents don't turn on their own!"

And if that wasn't the funniest, most hypocritical thing to ever come out of that traitor's mouth.

Betty leaned, down the first spark of danger in her eyes as they flashed with rage. She got close to Penny's ear, yanking the filthy blonde hair back as she hissed, "That tattoo doesn't make you one of us."

Betty looked Penny right in the eye, her face covered by shadows, but the glint that sparkled in her bright green irises was unmistakable when reflected in the shiny edge of a switchblade. The last time she had pulled this thing out, it was to intimidate Jughead. It was a bluff, a smoke and mirror trick. This time, the click of the blade promised hell.

Penny screamed, howled in excruciating pain as Sweet Pea and two other Serpents held her down while Betty carved into the sensitive flesh of her forearm. She cut out jagged lines, the writhing of their victim making it hard to create a clean break. But the end result was still a patch of tattooed, bloody skin rendered from the arm of a very angry, spiteful snake.

The older woman gasped and sobbed in her binds, looking helplessly at the mutilation. She was bleeding - far too much to let it go - but no one made a move to free her. No, they all looked to Betty, who only turned her back on the traitor, and walked away with Penny's tattoo in hand.

As soon as she set foot on the gravel drive, Betty turned to Toni.

"Light it up."

"Penny's still in there..." her best friend reminded her, looking at Betty a bit worriedly, like she was taking the joke too far. "We scared her pretty good. Stunt's over now...right?"

Betty turned to her friend. Never had she looked as serious as she had in that moment, and it scared Toni. It scared her to her core. Betty could see it in her eyes.

"I said light it up."

No one challenged her order. No one even batted an eye.

Someone struck a match and dropped it onto the line of gasoline, watching the path light up like a Christmas tree.

The heat was scorching, drying out Betty's eyes and skin within minutes. The smoke was heavy, making it hard to breathe. Betty pulled up the scarf she had wrapped around her neck so it covered her nose, eyes squinting into the brightness of destruction.

Toni kept her distance, the flames too aggressive for her liking. Everyone else mounted their bikes and backed up. Some drove off before the cops could show. Sweet Pea was the only one to come running.

"That's enough Ponytail," Sweet Pea said forcefully, shaking Betty by the shoulders, bringing her back her to senses. Her vision swam as the inferno climbed high into the night, Sweet Pea's face flickering in the shadowy glow. "You've made your point. It's over."

Betty nodded deftly, watching as two of the younger Serpents ran into the burning building to pull an unconscious Penny out of the blaze. They carried the woman by her arms and legs, ash-covered figure lying limp in the grass. What would become of the snake charmer now, no one knew. No one cared, either.

Side by side, Betty and Sweet Pea were the only ones who stayed to watch the entire empire burn to the ground.

* * *

 _So, this is how it ends_ , Betty thought as she leaned over and picked up the shovel, her eyes never once wavering from the gun that was pointed at her head.

From down below, she could see Archie and Veronica knocked out in the grass a few feet away. The Black Hood had snuck up on them and landed nasty blows to their heads, blood crusting across their brows. None of them stood a chance.

It was a strange sensation to stare death in the eyes. Terrible, green eyes that betrayed no emotion other than a perverse pleasure in seeing her suffer. In watching her shut Jughead inside of a coffin. In forcing her to pile on his grave soil.

This was beyond fucked up, worse than anything she could imagine. Worse than any nightmare, any horror movie ending, any scenario she had concocted in her macabre mind when Jughead had told her to quit smoking at Pop's. Because not even in her worst nightmares, when the violence of her lifestyle had caught up to her after years of tempting fate, had she ever considered becoming a murderer. She'd come close - _oh so close_ \- with Penny, but she had come to her senses. She had stopped, and after the smoke cleared she felt remorse. She swore never again. But there she was, killing the boy she loved and herself along with him with every scoop of dirt she placed on top of the coffin. And he had went so damn easily. All it took was a threat to her life, and Jughead was all too willing to step into the cold, unforgiving earth and take her place.

 _Stay calm Juliet, it'll all be alright._

And weren't those the most ironic last words?

Betty bit down on her bottom lip hard to stop herself from screaming. Why did he have to be so fucking stupid? Didn't he remember that _she_ was the one who swore to protect _him_?

"You don't have to do this..." Betty tried to reason, her voice trembling as she moved oh so slowly, scooping up dirt at a snail's pace.

"Oh, but I do," the cruel voice taunted, the gun inching forward, cold metal of the barrel glancing across her temple. Betty swallowed thickly, determined not to cry and give this bastard any more satisfaction. "Retribution will be had. The sinners will pay. And you...Betty Cooper...you are one of them."

The contempt in the Black Hood's voice dripped from every word, sending shivers down Betty's spine.

"Close your eyes."

Betty did as she was told, tears finally falling down her cheeks as her eyelids fluttered shut.

 _I'm a sinner. I locked a woman in a burning building and walked away. This is what I deserve. Just save Jughead. Please, God, if you're real, save Jughead._

She sucked in a breath and waited for the gunshot.


	4. Chapter 4

Blood.

Betty had never seen so much blood. There was so much blood - splattered across her teeshirt, staining her pants, soaking into the aged leather of her jacket. The serpentine "S" was tinged with it, the red fading to rust.

The reflection in the glass was a ghost - a pale, blonde-haired waif with black and blue circled eyes, wild and untamed and dangerous. She looked better than Jughead at least, he who was covered with a thin layer of dirt and grime from head to toe, clothing torn and snagged places from the rough edges of the wooden coffin. His eyes were just as haunted, shifting from floor to ceiling though looking for nothing in particular. They sat, side by side in uncomfortable chairs, the paper-thin padding digging into their sore bones as they stared listlessly into the waiting area.

She glanced down at their intertwined hands, knuckles scraped with a thin layer of dried blood caked underneath their nails. At least she knew hers was from the spray that followed the bullet ripping through the Black Hood's skull. All she could imagine was Jughead, trapped in that coffin of her own doing, desperately trying to claw his way out. The very idea brought hot bile to her throat, but she swallowed it down. Now was not the time for her to be weak. Not when others were fighting worse battles.

Betty hated hospitals even more than she hated prisons.

She hated the smell - the sickly smell that curled her nose and roiled her insides. It didn't help that what they used to cover that terrible odor was bleach, another toxic substance that made her head spin and temples pound.

Everything about the damn hospital was disorienting - from the overly saccharine nurses to the blindingly white light to the sheer amount of death that filled these groaning walls.

 _Please, don't let Archie_ _be one of those people,_ Betty begged, practically pleaded with whatever powers ruled this cruel, unfair universe. _Don't make him into one of these ghosts, stuck in some kind of limbo because of what I've done._

Not that she particularly liked the ginger indie wannabe. She just hated the idea of having someone else's blood on her hands. She had enough of it as it was. The last thing she wanted was to drag down an innocent, even if he was annoyingly cocky and self-righteous.

People rushed by them in a blur, but no one stopped to notice them. They were invisible. That was all she ever wanted to be for so long. Now, it felt like a curse.

Then, Veronica Lodge came striding down the halls like some kind of Jackie Kennedy - graceful and fashionable under duress even when she was covered in her lover's blood. All eyes were on her shaking frame, her trembling bottom lip. Jesus Christ, what ran in the Northside water that this girl looked like a fucking supermodel with running mascara and splotchy cheeks?

"He's stable."

The words were like a breath of much-needed air. A weight lifted off of Betty's chest that finally allowed life back into her corpse. Jughead sagged visibly, tension seeping from his bones as all the energy he put into keeping himself going ran out. Betty could feel him deflating, the pressure against her side increasing as she worked to keep him upright.

"Is he awake?" Betty managed the words, her voice coming out a little too high-strung and hoarse.

"No, he's resting. But the doctors say that's normal."

 _Normal,_ she scoffed internally, _as if there was anything normal about a bullet wound_. Betty held no illusions that it was for her own comfort. No, Veronica definitely needed to hear those words aloud, to push them past her lips enough times to start believing them. There would be no believing them, not for a single one of them, not until Archie was awake and able to speak for himself.

But for now, this had to be enough.

"His dad is coming soon. And his mom," Veronica added, now nervous in way Betty had never seen the pristine princess before. She fiddled with her hands, clasping and unclasping them repeatedly. "And probably the entire Riverdale High football team."

Betty was unable to stop her eyes from rolling. Typical mediocre white boy - having the team show up and have his back. She would have made a snarky remark about it if she had it in her.

"We should go."

Jughead was the one to speak up. Exhausted did not seem to encompass how he was feeling. His was a bone-deep weariness that rolled off of him in waves so strongly that even Betty was affected.

"Are you sure? No one is kicking you out. I'm sure Fred wouldn't mind you staying."

"No, we should leave...give the Andrews time with their son," Jughead said definitively, and Veronica seemed to accept this flow of logic, nodding along solemnly. There were no parting embraces, no hugs or anything. Just awkward staring at one another. "We'll call to check up in the morning."

"Be safe you two," Veronica advised, a thin smile on her lips. "Get some rest."

"You too."

Veronica nodded, but it was a lie. There would be no rest for any of them. It was just one of those things you had to say. Going through the motions. That was the only thing they could cling to.

Jughead corralled Betty, tucking her under his shoulder as if to shield her from the world. Betty kept looking over her shoulder, eyes never leaving the solitary Veronica Lodge in the middle of the hall, convinced that if she looked away for even a second, something terrible would happen to her as well.

* * *

FP's trailer was empty. It was always empty. Where the fuck did that man run off to all the time anyway?

Betty didn't really care. Not that particular moment. No, she was glad she and Jughead were alone, glad that she didn't have to stand the presence of anyone else. There had been too many people in that hospital lobby. Too many paramedics asking her questions, shining lights in her eyes, piling blankets on her and handing her oxygen masks. It was too much too fast and now she reveled in the quiet. Reveled in the way that this place was dark and cool and quiet and -

"Talk to me, Betty."

Jughead stood across the living space, giving her a concerned look. He shed his jacket, throwing the heavy, bloodstained thing across the recliner chair. Her own laid right beside it. Betty stared at them as if the leather would come alive and kill them both.

"Nothing to talk about. I'm fine," she dismissed, unable to focus her attention anywhere for too long. There were too many dark corners, too many entry points, too many -

"Really? Because I'm not fine," he confessed, staring down her defensive stance. "I got buried alive tonight. My best friend got shot. I'm not fine. And I can only imagine what it's like for you given that the Black Hood was really your - "

Betty's attention snapped up to Jughead, green eyes meeting tormented hazel with deadly precision.

"That man was _not_ my father," she hissed, the danger in her voice enough to make Jughead swallow down whatever retort he had. There was enough to process from what happened alone. The fact that the Black Hood was revealed to be her...her father...with a bullet between his eyes...

Betty took up pacing. She spun on her heel so hard that she thought she was going to rip a hole in the carpet. The motion made her stomach roll but helped distract from the devastating truth. There was no amount of therapy possible for the kind of healing this was gonna take. But there was enough anger. There was anger to spare, and Jughead was the only one around to bear the brunt of it.

"This entire idea was stupid. I can't believe I let you talk me into it. What were you thinking Jughead?"

"What was _I_ thinking?" he repeated, incredulous and angry. Good. He should be angry. "You were right there next to me when we made the call!"

"It was the wrong call. Archie's in the hospital, and that's on us."

"That's on Archie. He didn't have to come. Archie and Veronica both made their choice."

"We never should have involved them."

"This isn't your fault Betty!" Jughead shouted, throwing his arms out to his sides, exasperated. "You never could have predicted what would have happened! No one could."

"Okay but it did happen! Archie got shot and I had to _bury_ you and I couldn't protect you!" she fired back, her eyes burning with tears she refused to let fall. She couldn't break. Not again. If she broke, there would be no going back. Not from this. "I couldn't keep my promise."

Jughead's gaze went from scornful to soft, every tense ridge of his body going lax as he looked between the cracks in her perfectly sculpted facade. Damn him for getting under her skin so easily, for fixing her with that _look_ that melted her steel will into putty.

"Betty..."

His voice was so gentle that it hurt. Betty flinched away from it.

"How can you even look at me Jug?" she asked, arms going to wrap around her abdomen. It was a last ditch effort to hold herself together, and by god was that getting harder and harder to do every passing moment. She was filled with so much self-loathing and anger, the memories of the burning warehouse and Penny Peabody flooding her mind. It was overwhelming, the amount of bad she'd managed to do in such a short period of time. She was a miserable bitch that did not deserve the kindness directed her way. Why couldn't Jughead see that? "It should have been me in that grave. I deserve it."

Suddenly Jughead was moving, like he could not bear to be an inch further from her, until he invaded her space and he was all Betty could see, could smell, could feel.

"I thought...I thought you were dead," he choked on his words, unable to process such a terrible thought. "When I was in that box...I couldn't - I couldn't see what was happening but I-I heard the gunshot. I thought - "

Trembling hands went up to frame her damp cheeks, sweeping aside the tear tracks to trace across her temple, right where the bullet had grazed her when the Black Hood's gun had gone off after he'd been taken down by Sheriff Keller. Then, those shining eyes hardened into something dark and possessive, something primal as Jughead backed Betty up against the wall and crashed his lips to hers.

It was not a chaste kiss, nor was it careful. It was desperate and needy and completely instinct. Jughead stole the breath from Betty's lungs as if he needed it to live, and Betty was willing to give it, willing to grip onto the fabric of his soiled, black teeshirt so long as she could feel the heartbeat thundering underneath. So long as she could mold herself to Jughead and never let him go, to keep him close. She would let him take and take and take until he was satisfied. Until he pulled away gasping and uneasy, rubbing his forehead against hers so that they kept minimal distance between them.

Betty was shaking worse than he was. She could feel the whole body tremble that rocked through her spine and knew that it was only partly related to the night's terror.

"Hey...I'm right here."

That was the most gentle she had ever been with anyone in a long time. Probably since Polly. But Jughead needed it, and she needed it too. Her life was mess of steel edges and barbed wires. For once, she needed something soft and safe. That was what was going to get them both through this.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to not say shit like you deserve to die," Jughead grit his teeth, his words strained. Betty swallowed and nodded, their foreheads bumping. They were so close that she could feel his breath on her lips. "You may have promised to protect me, but I'll be damned if I let you destroy yourself in the process."

"There's always going to be something destructive about me Jug," Betty all but whispered, a confession she felt in her soul but never dared speak aloud. "There's darkness in my bones. I don't know how to get rid of it."

"You don't have to get rid of it. Just let me in, and I can help you through it."

"Okay," Betty breathed. It was not going to be as easy as he made it sound. Years upon years of bad decisions and family trauma were not going to be erased by a few nice words, especially after tonight, but it was a lovely thought. Having someone to hold through the dark sounded...nice. It sounded like hope. And after the night they'd both had, hope was something she clung to tightly. "Fuck...I need a cigarette. Or ten."

Jughead scowled, but it was halfhearted. "How about a shower instead?"

"Are you trying to say something, Northsider?" Betty teased dryly, not up for their usually antagonistic routine, but happy for something familiar.

"Nothing of the sort," Jughead placated, smiling lightly as he brushed fly-aways from her forehead. "Just that your hair looks a lot better when it's not full of leaves."

"Can't argue with that. You look a lot better when you're not covered in dirt too."

Jughead snorted and rolled his eyes. He reached down and laced their dirty, bloodied fingers together. They both stared at the interlocking digits, more than a little overwhelmed. It was Jughead who asked what they were both thinking.

"Are we gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," Betty nodded, squeezing a little tighter. "Yeah, I think we will."

* * *

A week later, Betty got a call from Shankshaw Prison.

Rather, Betty got a call from a court-appointed attorney to show up at a specific time, the 'or else' left in blatant subtext. For the first time, she was glad she was still on suspension. It made dropping all the things she wasn't doing easy.

The entire ride, Betty was a nervous wreck. She wished that she was as tough as she claimed, up to her former glory, but that was not the case. She was still badly shaken from confronting the Black Hood, and if she was about to walk into a trap, she didn't know if she had it in her to fight her way out. Nothing would be more humiliating than losing in front of her mother. After everything Betty said she gave up to lead the Serpents, if she had her ass handed to her there would be no living that down.

Rain beat against the front windshield, the wipers stalling against the onslaught.

"Piece of shit," Jughead cursed, slamming on the dash of the old truck.

Betty remained quiet while Jughead fiddled with the infernal things. He had insisted he take the day off school to drive her to the prison, and Betty didn't have it in her to tell him no. He had been so protective of her lately, always keeping a watchful eye. It was both annoying and endearing, and she had no clue how he could make her feel both things so intensely at the same time.

Thankfully, they were at a red light, so Betty could nod off against the window. She was so exhausted these days, so far from the strong, invincible leader she crafted herself to be. Would her friends laugh if they could see her now - so small and weak? Would they replace her? Would they cast her aside now that she was broken? This was the Southside after all. It reserved no kindness, no patience for inferior things. There was no way she could continue to stand up to the Ghoulies like this. There was no way she could ever raise a defense if Penny Peabody ever gathered the balls to show her face again. And what use was a leader that had lost the will to lead?

Maybe her mother was right. Maybe she had made a mistake.

The wipers started again. The light turned green. Off they went down the winding road.

Shankshaw Prison was just as oppressive and grey as Betty remembered. Betty hadn't been there since she and her mom had that fight; she had been too upset to show her face, too ashamed to admit what she had done with her mother's valuable information. Which only made being summoned here all the more confusing.

The rain had died down to a chilling mist, one that seeped into Betty's bones despite Jughead's attempts to shield her with his jacket. The old leather bomber was big, but not big enough for the both of them. Gravel crunched under their feet as they got out of the truck and headed towards the front gates. However, they were stopped in their tracks when the gates opened as they stood half way down the drive.

Warden Jeffries - the miserable bastard - stood at the door, his arms crossed in front of him. He looked displeased, none too happy to open the barbed wire gates and let a very familiar blonde woman walk out.

"Mom?" Betty asked, astounded. The sheer surprise blinded her from seeing the man walking with her - hand in hand.

"Dad?" Jughead looked just as confused as Betty, but unlike Betty who had her eyes glued on her mother in civilian clothes and not in an orange jumpsuit, Jughead was fixed on their interlinked hands. "What's going on?"

Alice Cooper freed herself from FP in time to catch an armful of Betty. The mother and daughter embraced tightly for a long time - probably an awkward amount of time for the father and son who were looking at one another with a mix of confusion and bewilderment.

"Mom...how is this possible?" Betty stammered, unable to believe her eyes. Even though she could touch Alice Cooper, could smell the lingering scent of her perfume on her jacket, this couldn't be real. "I-I can't...but Penny Peabody is gone...I don't - "

"It's alright Elizabeth, breathe," Alice instructed, holding Betty by her shoulders as the girl obeyed. This close, Betty could see that her mother also looked like she needed to breathe, stress written in every line of her skin. There were dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes, but she held herself together long enough to support her daughter. "This is actually Polly's doing."

"Polly," Betty mimicked. The story just reached a whole new level of unbelievable.

"She found out about your fa-" Alice had to cut herself off, unable to say the words. "About the Black Hood and convinced Jason Blossom to issue a statement of forgiveness, absolving me of my fault in covering up Cheryl's death."

"But...but why would she - ?"

"She did it for you. She didn't want you to be an orphan."

Betty nodded, her mind reeling as she tried to process the impossible. All this time, she thought that Polly didn't give a shit about anyone. She was wrong. Betty was always wrong. Everything in her life kept getting flipped upside down. She didn't know what way was up. All she knew was that her mother was a free woman, standing _right there_ in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel like it was all going to be ripped away.

 _Thank God for Jug_ , she thought as she felt the comforting weight of his hand holding her down, an anchor at the small of her back. It kept her from drowning.

"Are you two...?" Alice trailed off, pointing between Betty and Jughead, her eyebrows arched suspiciously as she surveyed the public affection.

"Are _you_?" Betty asked right back, eyes widening at the way her mother's cheeks flushed when she looked over at FP.

The silence was damning.

For a while, no one knew what to say. The four of them stood in the parking lot, unsure of how to act. Were they parents and children, or two couples who just happened to be related?

"Well, this is awkward," FP stated the obvious, shoving his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans. "Pop's anyone? It's on me."

* * *

Pop's was near empty when the four of them sidled into the corner booth.

Betty slunk in, staring out the window and willing herself to phase through it so she could escape this inevitable awkward situation. Jughead sat next to her, their parents staring at them from across the table. It was cold inside the diner, the heater unable to reach her where she pressed up against the frigid glass, her breath making little puffs of condensation. When she was a child, she would drag her fingers through the steam and draw pictures until her mother caught notice and snatched her hands away. Betty drew a smiley face now, and no one said a damn thing.

Oh, how the times had changed.

There was more unbearable silence. Pop came over to take their order, saving them from the quiet. No one was particularly hungry, but they all ordered meals anyway, the burgers coming out on heaps of steaming, salty fries and a fresh pot of coffee placed in the center of the table. Betty had ordered a vanilla milkshake out of habit, but just the smell made her stomach lurch. She hadn't been able to eat much of anything this past week thanks to her father, much to Jughead's annoyance. That boy could tuck food away like no one's business, not even the trauma of being buried alive keeping him from tearing into his burger like he hadn't been fed in ages.

"So," Jughead mumbled to his father through a mouthful of food. "This is where you've been disappearing all the time?"

"Don't talk to me about disappearing kid," FP shot back, but it lacked heat. His lips were curving upward into a smile while he moved his fries around his plate. Then he looked Alice as if seeking her permission. "Yes. I've been visiting Alice in prison. We sort of reconnected there."

"Reconnected?" Betty asked, needing clarification.

"FP was on his way out when I was on my way in," Alice elaborated, looking at FP in a way Betty never remembered her looking at her father. "We crossed paths, made promises to keep an eye on our kids. Not that it did any good with you both playing detective."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore," Betty sighed, leaning away the nauseating romance radiating from the other side of the booth.

Alice arched an eyebrow, completely disbelieving, but she said nothing more.

"So...when did this happen?" FP asked gently, testing the waters. He's cautious, and that's smart. Betty appreciated the vagueness of the word "this". She didn't know if she could come up with a proper label for whatever she and Jughead had.

Jughead was busy chewing, so that left Betty to respond. "I don't think it ever stopped."

FP accepted this, no doubt thinking back to the countless playdates he arranged with his son and the youngest Cooper girl all those years ago.

Her mother snorted into her mug. "Weren't you dating that other boy? Sweet something or other."

"Yeah...I don't think that's gonna work out," Betty confessed, her attention turned to the condensation dripping down her glass. It hurt to say out lout, but the words were also liberating. Like she had one less weight dragging her down. "We're just...too different."

Betty could feel Jughead's eyes on her, the burger now forgotten in favor of watching her closely, but she did not give in. She remained focused on her mother and FP, on the way that they were giving her soft, almost pitying looks. She hated them, but she knew she'd hate Jughead's look even more. Whatever it was - whether it be jealousy or pain or some sort of confusion.

"How's Archie?" FP asked instead, wrapping his hands firmly around the mug of steaming coffee. Bless him.

"I talked to Mr. Andrews yesterday. He says he's gonna be fine," Jughead answered, leaning back in the booth, a hand reaching subtly under the table for Betty's. A silent plea for support. She's not sure who gave it. "A little bruised, but Veronica's been making sure he's been eating and doing his exercises."

"God help him if he chooses to disobey her," Betty snarked, stirring her vanilla milkshake listlessly. "I'd rather take on the Black Hood than face Veronica Lodge in a bad mood."

The table went stiff and silent. Betty cursed under her breath.

"Sorry, shitty joke."

"Elizabeth Cooper, _language_ ," her mother chided, though there was no mistaking the defensive bite in her tone. Betty had hit a frayed nerve.

The tentative illusion of normality shattered.

She squeezed Jughead's fingers so hard that she thought he was going to pull away. But he held on. Even when she felt their knuckles grind and she swore her nails started to bite into his skin.

She thought about the last time she sat in this diner, just days before everything went to hell. She thought about the cigarettes and how she spat in the face of death. She was so much more carefree then. She thought that nothing could touch her. That girl was so stupid.

"I'm glad he's dead," Betty blurted, unable to keep this much anger and anguish inside anymore. There were tears stinging at her eyes but she didn't give a damn because she _needed_ to say this. She _needed_ to let it out. "I know I should feel terrible, but I don't. He held me at gunpoint, hurt my friends, killed who knows how many people. I'm glad he's dead. Does that make me a bad person?"

"Oh, sweetheart," Alice sighed, reaching across the table to hold her daughter's other hand. "Of course not. I'm...I'm glad he's gone too."

Tears choked off her throat, making it hard to form words, making it hard to do anything other than whimper. "Did he...did he ever love us? Love me?"

 _Pathetic, you're pathetic,_ Betty snapped at herself. But she couldn't help it. In this respect, when it came to her father, she was just a little girl. A lost little girl who just wanted to understand what she did wrong...what she did to turn her father into something like _that._

"I don't know Betty. I don't know," Alice replied, and Betty let the first tear drip down her cheek onto the countertop. "But I do know that you're not alone in this. Everyone at this table loves you."

Jughead moved his arm so that it surrounded her, pulling her into his side. Her mother didn't let go of her other hand despite the jostling, and FP looked at Betty with so much compassion that it hurt. Now she knew where Jughead got it from. If this man was anything like his son, bad decisions aside, her mother was a lucky woman.

They were all lucky. Lucky to have each other. Lucky to be alive.

Betty was never going to forget that again.

* * *

Suspension had to end sometime.

Back when she was sentenced, Betty felt like it was the end of the world. She was being forced out of school - the one place she fought for harder than anyone else. She was being silenced. She was ruining her one chance at a better life. And she hated every single person in that building for pushing her out, for not fighting for her, for standing aside and gawking as she was escorted away in the back of a police car.

Now, she dreaded returning.

Returning meant having to walk the halls amongst her enemies. It meant looking over her shoulder. It meant having to face the consequences of burning Penny Peabody and cheating the Ghoulies out of a race. It meant having to look her peers in the eyes knowing that they saw her not as their leader, but as the girl who nearly got popped by the Black Hood. It meant having everyone smear her name as the daughter of a psychopath. It meant having her legacy ruined, torn to tatters as her integrity was questioned because of a man she hated even before she knew he killed people.

Betty stared at her reflection in the sideview mirror of FP's truck.

She looked older than she remembered, more tired. Her green eyes weren't as sharp as they once were, not as hard. Her walls had been destroyed and she was in the process of rebuilding them. Until she did, she had a vulnerability to her that was unwelcome and unfamiliar. Her cheeks were softer, pinker, even if her cheekbones were more prominent from her lack of eating. Her lips were bare from their red armor and her eyes naked from winged eyeliner. Her mother had her Serpent jacket laundered, but Betty refused to wear it, paranoid at the phantom feel of blood and dirt. Instead she wore a thick navy blue sweater and a pair of worn denim jeans, Jughead's bomber thrown over it all.

Would anyone recognize her at all? She sure as hell didn't.

"You ready?" Jughead asked from the driver's seat.

"No," Betty admitted, sighing out a heavy breath as she reached to the backseat to pull out her backpack. "But I'm never going to be. Might as well get it over with."

"You can take more time. The principal told your mom that if you aren't feeling well then - "

"Jughead. I'll be fine. I've been through worse," Betty cut him off, not wanting to hash out this exhausting back and forth for the millionth time.

She regretted driving with him, but her hands were still too shaky to ride her bike, and Jughead still didn't want her out of sight. They'd spent the last few weeks trading off staying at each other's places. Last night was Jughead's night to stay with her. They woke up in her bed and almost gave into the urge to silence their alarm clocks and spend the rest of the morning wrapped up in each other. It would have certainly been a better morning than what Betty was about to do now.

He nodded, but it was passive aggressive. Betty knew he had more to say, that he was biting back a fight. The effort was immense but Betty was glad for his increased control. She didn't want to start this day of all days with a fight.

"I'll pick you up after class."

Betty didn't reply. She merely opened the door and planted her combat-booted feet on the familiar concrete, taking things one step at a time. She tipped her head up to the sky and pulled her hair from her face, tying up the blonde locks into her signature ponytail. The wind whipped past her newly exposed ears. It was chilly but the sun was shining for the first time in what felt like forever. The storm had passed over Riverdale, clearing the way for a bright future.

"Hey," Jughead called across the parking lot. Betty turned to face him. From this distance, he looked like some kind of dark Prince Charming, his crown beanie crooked on his mop of unruly black hair. "I love you."

Betty felt her heart skip a beat, her breath catch in her throat. It was the first time he'd said it in words, the forever unspoken thing finally released into the air, and Betty felt like flying.

She nodded and blinked back tears - the happy kind this time. "See you after class."

Jughead smiled. She didn't have to say it when it was evident in her eyes, and that was enough for him. One day she would say the words back, when she wasn't broken in little jagged pieces, when she was able to lend her battered heart once more.

He got back in the truck and pulled away, the old engine stalling as it turned down the road from Southside High. Then Betty was alone. Completely and terribly alone with dozens of eyes staring into her back.

She shouldered her backpack and made a bee-line for the front doors, making sure to breathe. Her nails cut into her palm as she got closer to the entrance. All she had to do was get to her locker and then get to class. She knew the route by heart, like autopilot. It didn't even require thought.

Of course, it could never be that easy.

Someone knocked into her shoulder as soon as she reached the front lobby, sending her books flying across the grimy tile floor in front of everyone. Betty looked up to see a Ghoulie sneering at her, his buddies snickering under their breath. If this were a few weeks ago, she would have had his scrawny ass backed up against the lockers with a knife to his throat. Now, she didn't even have it in her to tell him to fuck off.

"Freak," he hissed under his breath.

"You got something to say?"

Sweet Pea came striding in like her guardian angel, a dangerous glint in his eye as he stepped chest to chest with the offender. He had six inches on the guy and at least fifty pounds worth of muscle. Not really a fair fight, and the little fucker knew it, which was why he was quick to scamper off with his buddies.

"Shit Ponytail," Toni whistled through her teeth as she pushed through to Betty's side, surveying her friend from head to toe. From the way Toni was looking, Betty might as well have been a corpse. Or a Northsider.

"Yeah. That's accurate," Betty huffed, the contempt in her voice dulled by the defeat of how she knew this day was going to go. Everything ached as she bent over to pick up her books. The last one Sweet Pea handed to her. "Thanks."

The three of them pushed through the crowd, making their way towards the cafeteria. Betty wanted to care about making it to homeroom, wanted to avoid her old stomping ground at all costs, but Toni and Sweet Pea had her boxed in. There was nowhere to go except where they steered her, and she was too tired to fight.

They made a pit stop by Sweet Pea's locker. Sweet Pea spun his combination aggressively as if the locker had personally offended him, while Toni leaned up against the graffiti-covered metal so that other people could slip past. She had dyed the tips of her hair purple this time. Betty didn't care for it. Toni had always looked better with red.

"So...how've you been girl?" Toni asked gently, looping her arm through Betty's. "I tried to call a few times. You never answered."

"I didn't know what to say," Betty replied honestly, looking dead ahead. If she turned her head to the sides, she'd see the people staring, see them glaring and gossiping and that would make surviving the day so much worse.

"People have been saying some nasty stuff. We started to think that you were never coming back," Toni continued, the worry in her voice increasing.

"I'm not sure. I really...I really fucked up," Betty said as she scrubbed at her eyes. "After all the shit I've caused, maybe I should stay gone."

"After all the shit you caused..." Sweet Pea repeated, incredulous and somewhat irked. "Ponytail, you stopped a murderer. You saved a lot of people."

"Don't make me sound like some sort of goddamn hero Sweet Pea," Betty snapped, moving to rub at her temples. Everything ached and the fluorescent lights were making her head pound. "Look around you. Everyone _hates_ me."

Sweet Pea moved abruptly, slamming his locker door shut without retrieving the books he came to get. He extended his hand and roughly took Betty's.

"Come with me."

Betty looked to Toni for guidance, but she only nodded encouragingly. It was evident that whatever had gotten into Sweet Pea, Toni was in on it as well. Betty didn't know whether to be terrified or reassured. She only let herself be pulled the rest of the way down the hall until they reached the cafeteria. Only then did Sweet Pea let her go in favor of pushing open the double doors. Toni guided Betty the rest of the way into the large room, only for Betty to stop short once she paid attention to what was going on.

All the students stood from their seats as soon as Betty walked inside.

Everyone was staring at her. It was a different kind of staring from what she got in the parking lot. This staring was respectful, reverent in a way Betty never could have anticipated.

And then they started clapping. Slow at first, and then a full blown applause. It was so loud that it drowned out all the other noise, all the whispers and nasty rumors, all the doubts that had started building in the darker corners of her mind.

Ghoulies and Serpents alike were cheering her on, and for the first time in a long time, Betty had hope.

* * *

Despite the suspension and subsequent time off she took to recover from the Black Hood debacle, Betty was still on track to graduate. Early acceptance letters to nearly a dozen universities littered her desk at the Red and Black, each one vying for her attention. She tacked them up on her cork board, as though solving a case. She didn't know which one to pick, though her eye lingered on NYU. It was pricey and pretentious, but it was her dream school and the number of zeroes tacked onto the scholarship offer were enough to turn even the most conservative head. So, she pinned that one in the center and used it as her guide.

It was so much easier to focus on school now that she had officially stepped down as the de facto Serpent Queen. Alice Cooper was back in power, and Betty was more than willing to let her mother resume her reign. After all, such power was never meant to be wielded by a teenager with a dark streak. Her mother was right; Betty needed to be better than her. She needed to reach for better so that she could get out of the town that literally held a gun to her head. It was only a matter of months now. Months, and she could leave all the bad memories behind.

Betty was in the process of ruling out Northwestern and Boston University when she heard a knock on the door. Jughead usually just walked in. So did Toni, and Joaquin took a half schedule so he was never there in the afternoon. That only left one other person it could possibly be.

Sweet Pea stood in the doorway, unsure if he was wanted or not. It was strange to see him lack his usual bravado and confidence, strange enough to make Betty forget that she was mad at him for their last conversation in this tiny closet office.

"So, you and Jones, huh?"

Damn, what a hell of a way to open a conversation.

Betty had to suck in a breath and make sure her voice wasn't going to shake when she replied, "Yeah."

"Guess I should've seen it coming," he huffed, though there was no heat. More like resignation as he smiled ruefully to himself, shaking his head. "I never really stood a chance when he showed up."

Betty arched her eyebrows, shocked. "You remember?"

"Who could forget? Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones - the Southside's own Prince Charming and Cinderella," he said wryly, no malice in his tone. Only a melancholy acceptance, and something akin to longing. "Who the hell am I to stand in the way of true love?"

Betty felt her heart ache in her chest. She wanted to curl up into the hard planes of Sweet Pea's chest and tell him that everything was going to be okay. That life was going to go back to normal and that things were never going to change. But that would be cruel, mostly because it was not true, and Sweet Pea was never the kind to appreciate bullshit.

"I'm sorry Sweet Pea. I never wanted to hurt you. It's just...we've been going our separate ways, you know? We're two really different people who want different things out of life, and that doesn't mean that I don't love you. I think I'll always love you. It just means that we aren't meant to be together."

"I get it, Ponytail. I really do," Sweet Pea said honestly. He was taking this so much better than Betty expected, and it was kind of freaking her out. "I don't wanna hold you back from chasing your dreams. If you wanna go to New York and become a journalist, then that's what you're gonna do, Southside be damned."

It was so different from the conversation they had the last time they were in this room together, that Betty was stunned. Maybe he had only said those things, about her life being a dead end, because he was angry. Angry and upset at his girl slipping through his fingers. He was fighting a losing battle then, and she was too caught up in the thrill of the case to be bothered that she was pushing him away.

If things were different...oh, if only things were different. If her heart was really in the gang life and she didn't see anything outside of the one-lane highway that connected the Southside to the rest of the world, maybe they wouldn't have to say goodbye.

"For what it's worth, you were a really amazing boyfriend," Betty said, a smile toying on her lips. She'd since ditched the red lipstick; somehow, it just didn't suit her anymore.

She hoped it didn't hurt, that the words didn't do more damage. The look that crossed Sweet Pea's face made her unsure, but he still managed to smile.

"You're gonna be an amazing journalist, Ponytail. The big city isn't ready."

He left the door open on the way out.

* * *

The early-summer sun beat down on the asphalt of the empty parking lot. It had been a year since Betty had braved this particular heat, been a year since everything changed.

Everything was different now.

There were no leather jackets, no motorcycles, and no cigarettes. No, Betty had thrown the rest of those into Sweet Water River. They weren't her anymore. They reminded her of violence and dark times, the very things she was standing in the lot ready to forget.

Her eyes were fixed on the horizon, looking down that familiar one-lane highway that connected the Northside to the Southside. She was waiting for someone, a particular someone in a beaten pick up truck to come get her and her suitcase full of possessions.

It was easy to pack her whole life in one bag. It wasn't until she had to move that she realized how little she really had to her name. Or, more accurately, how much that mattered to her. Anything she couldn't live without - pictures of her mother and Polly, the Cheryl Blossom article, a copy of the book she rescued from a sad boy one day on the playground - she had in the bag at her feet.

"Hey Ponytail!"

Betty turned to see Toni striding towards her, hands deep in the pockets of her Serpent jacket. Okay, not everything had changed. Toni was the same; she had even died her tips back to red, hoop earrings knocking against Betty's neck as they embraced.

"Toni," Betty greeted with a smile, holding her best friend close. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show."

"And miss the chance to send my best girl off? Not a chance," Toni replied, punching Betty lightly in the arm. "You got everything you need?"

"I think so," Betty nodded and looked at the beaten up suitcase. It wasn't a lot, but she wasn't worried. There would be plenty of time to build a life at NYU. Besides, dorms were supposed to be ridiculously small anyway. "If I forgot something, you'll keep it safe for me."

"No promises when it comes to your makeup," Toni warned teasingly, something melancholy beneath her grin. "I'm gonna miss you girl."

"You could always come with me."

It was a silly fantasy Betty'd had for a while: she and Toni crashing in some shitty apartment in one of the boroughs, living off of take out and overpriced beer. Betty would go to class while Toni worked some sort of job and at night they'd go on adventures in a city a hundred times bigger than Riverdale. A perfect daydream. Completely unrealistic.

"Nah. That's your future, not mine," Toni shook her head, but there's no resentment in her voice. She's always known where she was meant to be, something that Betty has always envied. "Besides, someone has to keep the boys in check while you're gone."

Betty chuckled, thinking of Joaquin and Sweet Pea and all the shenanigans they would get up to without her there to stop them. Toni would do a good job though. She's always had a clear head on her shoulders. The Southside would stay standing with Toni to guide them.

An engine purred in the distance, far too expensive to be the one Betty was waiting on, but not one that was unwanted. When the familiar vintage classic pulled into the lot, backseat piled high with designer luggage, and two Northsiders stepped out, Betty did not have the urge to tell them to fuck off. Instead, she pulled the brunette into a tight hug.

Veronica Logde laughed, surprised. "Wow! I don't think I ever expected a hug from the vicious Betty Cooper."

"Shut up Vee," Betty snapped, but she was still smiling. She was glad that Veronica had made it - that they had _both_ made it. "How's the arm Andrews?"

"Good enough to play for the Violets this season," Archie replied, rotating his shoulder just because he could. Betty didn't give him a hug, but he didn't mind. They weren't on that level yet, and Betty didn't think she'd ever be able to fully let herself get close to the boy she almost got killed.

"I can't wait until school starts. You're going to _love_ the city Bee. Lots of cool coffee shops and nooks to write your next award-winning article," Veronica assured, and started rattling through her list of five-star restaurants and bars that she wanted to take the both of them once they get settled in for the semester.

It was strange yet comforting, that they were all going to the same school. Veronica was planning to study business, Archie was an undecided jock, and Betty was set to become the next Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. And while Betty's daydreams had always included Toni, Sweet Pea, and Joaquin, it was becoming easier to replace them with Veronica, Archie, and Jughead. Not that the original trio could ever be replaced. Never. Betty could never forget her oldest, dearest friends. But she was moving on, growing up and away from the Southside, and this - standing in this lot, ready to go - was the final step.

Just then, the beaten up truck groaned its way into the lot. Two men jumped out once it was parked, the older headed over to grab Betty's bag and heft it into the bed while the other made his way to Betty's side, arm settling across her shoulders to hold her close. He pressed a kiss to her temple and Betty sighed, content.

"You two are disgustingly cute," Toni complained, but she wasn't serious. No, Toni was more than happy to see Betty so happy.

"Just like elementary school all over again," Betty tormented, sticking her tongue out at Toni who burst into a fit of laughter.

Jughead rolled his eyes but went along with the shenanigans. "Ready to go?" Betty nodded. "Your mom said she'd meet us at the county line."

Alice Cooper had been increasingly emotional the closer Betty got to starting college. She had FP now, so she wouldn't be completely alone, but it wouldn't be the same. Not with both Polly and herself gone. Maybe her mom could finally pick up a hobby - go traveling or open that newspaper she always talked about doing back before when her own future was bright and endless.

This world was changing. Anything was possible.

"Safe travels," Toni wished as she hugged Betty one last time.

"I'll call you as soon as we get there."

"You better." Toni jerked her head in the direction of the truck, to where Jughead leaned against the cab door with a disgustingly besotted look on his face. It stood in such a stark contrast to Toni's own sadness. "I'm gonna miss you Ponytail. Things won't be the same without you."

Betty was gonna miss Toni. A lot. Probably more than considered healthy. But Betty knew that the Southside was going to feel her loss just as hard. Nothing could fill the void that Betty would leave. She wasn't leaving forever; she assured everyone of that time and time again. She'd be back. Maybe not at first, maybe not for a while, but she'd be back.

"Make the Southside proud!"

Jughead opened up the backseat for Betty and slid in next to her, their bodies pressed side to side. Betty looked over to Archie and Veronica starting up their car, sunglasses and head scarf tucked neatly in place. It was a long drive to the city, but with friends by her side and the clear skies above, Betty felt like she could ride forever.

The truck pulled out of the lot, and Betty watched through the back windshield as they left Riverdale in the dust.


End file.
